A New Faunus Colony
by Qopster
Summary: A new city run only be Faunus has emerged, led by the Ex-Hunter, Sparta. He and 100 fled Faunus fled their cities to start fresh and anew where only Faunus or those with Faunus relatives would be allowed to live. The story starts a month into the construction of this new town, houses and basic buildings already made. Rated T for language, suggestive themes, battles, and other stuff
1. Chapter 1 - Introduction

**Heyo! Qopster here with another story. :3 I'm not new to writing, but I still would love comments and the like if they help. I'd love feedback on this idea as well, it'd be great! Also, read bellow…read the bold…DO IT! TRUST ME! It's kinda important…**

 **Okay, the other stuff I mentioned was drugs. DON'T GO AWAY LET ME EXPLAIN! I mean like weed and cigarettes and the like. I mean I'm going to make up illegal drugs too but still…Anyway, wanted to get that out of the way.**

 **Oh, and this takes place…um…let's say before the events of RWBY, two years…yeah, when Blake's still in the White Fang and Ruby and Yang don't know the others…and Weiss is a bitch…like she always is! Anyway, have a nice read!**

 **Chapter 1**

The sun rose over the jungle's treetops, morning dew glistening on massive leaves as a hut opened. It wasn't a normal hut though; it was located in the trees, as were all the other huts. It was made of wood, but had an AC unit in it as well as well as a solar panel on the roof. A giant vat also hung in the trees, holding fresh rain water with a net over it to prevent mosquitoes from getting to it. It was quite an odd hut.

Hopping out of the tree landing with a roll, the man stood up and pulled out a whistle. He tweeted loud and long, getting other doors in the treetops to open up as annoyed and tired heads peaked out.

"Get up lazy buts!" he called out with a wide grin. "We got work to do today!"

With groans and mumbles of dissent among a few, others eagerly hopped out and ran to join him. A Faunus with bear traits stuck out a fist for a fist bump. "Hey boss, what's up Sparta?" he asked, grinning. "What are we doing today?"

"I'll say once everyone's here," he said, smiling as he returned the fist bump. "Be patient."

It took only half an hour for everyone to get out and arrive, sitting on the ground or drinking water from their water bottles. In total, there was about 100 people, all which listened to the man standing on top of a fallen tree, Sparta Auburn, Ex-Hunter.

"So…everyone's here right?" he called out with a grin as he looked around. A shield bounced on his back as he asked. "Well… I think everyone's here, so let's get down to business. Workers," he said, pointing to the stronger ones who looked up. "You guys go and work on that wall. How many days until the wooden part is finished?"

"Give us a few," one ram Faunus said with a chuckle. "There's only so many of us after all."

"Alright, just keep on working alright? We need it if we're gonna keep the Grimm out." He turned to another group. "What about you guys? Are the farms doing well?"

A bunny Faunus, female, walked up and nodded. "So far no problems boss."

"Good to hear." He turned to a few others that had drills in their hands. "miners, what about you guys?"

"We found another Dust pocket," a sheep Faunus said with a wide grin, his curled horns sticking out of his head. "This one's red Dust, and it's a big pocket, so we should be able to get a pretty penny for it."

"That's good," he said with a smile. "We can't make these electronics after all, so all money is good," he said with a nod. "So…everyone get to work," he said with a clap. "Breakfast is at the main hut," he said, pointing to the large hut that stretched across several trees. "So is lunch and dinner, so get there whenever you wanna. I'll be walking around. Dismissed!" he said, walking away from the group.

Age 25, Sparta wasn't an imposing man, but he wasn't someone you could easily walk over, or walk over at all. He stood at 6 feet tall, was well built with average muscles, and always carried a shield, his weapon, on his back. He had shimmering blue eyes that reflected the light, a pair of gray cat ears that poked out through his blonde hair, sticking out like a sore thumb. He was kind to everyone, human and Faunus until someone pissed him off. He walked with a confident gait, even if he was somewhere he didn't know at all and knew nobody there. That's what got him where he was after all.

For clothes he had on a simple light yellow T-shirt and khaki shorts with his shield strapped to his back. That shield was the weapon he had used in Beacon when he was in training and in vale when he was a hunter-for-hire. It could…well…it had many uses.

Hearing the crunching of someone running up behind him, he turned and saw a rabbit Faunus with golden hair running up, a worried look on her face as her ears twitched nervously. "Oh, hey Michelle," he said as if there wasn't a problem in the world. "What's up?"

"What's up? Well," the nervous rabbit Faunus said, her ears twitching nervously. "There's kinda a problem…"

He changed in a flash from being happy and joking around to being serious, his smile vanishing as his eyes narrowed at her. "Show me."

He was lead away from the group, down a dirt path they had worn out to another tree with a hut up in the canopy. It wasn't a normal one though, the hut or the tree. The tree was an observation post of sorts as it was in the tallest one out of all the trees in the jungle nearby. The two of them quickly climbed up, the rabbit girl behind Sparta.

"So I was up here, watching for anything out of the ordinary," she said as they climbed. "You know, more Grimm than normal, any unauthorized bullheads, etcetera. Everything was normal until an hour ago."

"What happened?" he asked as they reached the halfway mark. "Grimm or bullhead?"

"A bullhead belonging to the White Fang touched down," she said, biting her bottom lip. "I don't know if they've come here yet, but it seems unlikely. It was fairly far away. But there was more than one, I'm worried they're setting up an outpost of sorts. I saw a smoke trail, so that only furthers my idea," she said as they finally reached the top. They opened the trapdoor and came out into the wooden room. "You know, it could be a campfire," she said as she climbed out after him.

On one wall was a map of the surrounding island, as well as the flight plans they had set up with all of the other four nations and any ships coming from them. On a desk was a lamp as well as a scroll and a radio to contact any incoming bullheads that wanted to land on the landing pad, one of the few ground structures they had set up besides the wall that was being built.

Without commenting on her talking, he walked to the window on one side and looked out through it at the smoke trail. His eyes narrowed on it and a frown grew as he picked up his shield off his back. "I'll be right back…" he said as he walked back to the ladder. "I'm gonna go check it out…"

"Hey wait!" she said, following him and watching him climb down with worry in her eyes, nervously bouncing back and forth. "Shouldn't you bring some help along?" she asked. "I mean, there's Grimm in the forest too you know."

He looked up and gave her a quick grin. "Don't worry about me," he said as he held onto the ladder with one hand, pulling off his shield with the other. "I got this baby, and she's never failed me in a single battle…except for that one time at a stripper joint but we don't talk about that," he said with a chuckle, watching the other person's face go crimson.

"S-stripper joint?" she asked. "Why were you?"

"Look, some gang was running it and 'ol Oz told us to get on the case and take it out…it was a weird night that's all I'm saying m'kay?" he looked up and grinned. "Also, you really shouldn't look down at me like that."

She blinked in confusion, calming down slightly. "Why's that?"

"I can see your panties," he said simply.

Her face lit up until it was the color of a Grimm's eyes as she reached down and pulled down her skirt. She grabbed the nearest thing, a stick that had fallen from the tree and hurled it at him. "Perv!"

He reflected it away with his shield with a grin as he winked up at her. "Anyway, I'll see you later. Tell the others what I'm doing, alright?" he asked as he turned his shield towards another tree and hit a button on the inside.

A hole opened and out shot a grappling hook. He swung off the ladder and swung down, descending in a smooth arch. He hit the button again and it detached, quickly retracting before he launched it at another branch. He continued the process until he was swooshing down to the ground at the lowest point of his swing. He finally hit the button one last time and rolled as he hit the ground, sitting still once he was done.

 _Quiet…nice…nobody heard me then,_ he thought as he heard the birds chirping and saw a squirrel scuttle around nearby. _And there aren't too many Grimm today, that's good._ He lifted his shield back onto his back and dusted his clothes. _Might as well see what the hell's going on,_ he thought as he walked down through the forest, heading towards the smoke plume.

 **Short, but it's just the beginning. Anyway, please tell me what you thought if you took the time to read this. If you didn't and you just scrolled to the bottom…well you wasted your time. :P Anyway, I will give this as a warning to all who hate it when people include characters from the cannon. They will show up, it's in the character thingy on the fanfic summary thingy…yeah…anyway…ciao!**


	2. Chapter 2 - White Fang

**I have determined I will upload this mainly on the weekends, and my other story on the weekdays. So yeah...enjoy! Oh, and in advance, please review. They help, seriously.**

Blake sat on the ground, glaring at one of the engines of their ship that had been damaged after a failed mission. It had seemed simply enough, take a bullhead and rob a supposedly unarmed ship that was coming from Atlas.

 _Unarmed my ass,_ she thought as she watched the White Fang pilot fix the engine with a repair kit, her glare drilling into his back. _That was armed with anti-air to the damn teeth…that was bullshit…_ she thought, turning her glare from the soldier's back to the forest. _And who knows about the Grimm in this area? Damn…I wish we had more intel at least…_

She heard rustling in some bushes and stood up, her hand sliding down to gambol shroud to see only a White Fang mask appear. "Oh…is that you Carlos?" she called out as the figure got closer. "Did you find anything in the for-" she stopped talking as two things became obvious. One, Carlos wasn't moving of his own will because two, someone was behind him, using him as a shield of sorts.

"You know," the person said, getting the pilot's attention along with the four others there. "I really don't care for you White Fang soldiers." He tossed the knocked out soldier in front of Blake and sighed, shaking his head as he held his shield in his right hand. "They're hiring kids even? Damn…that's low."

She looked him over and glared. "Iron Shield Sparta…why are you here?" she asked with a glare.

"What? White Fang tells you my nickname but doesn't give you kiddies the latest in news? Damn…get your priorities straight people…" He sighed and shook his head before looking up to glare at them. "My home is here…so scram, you're on private property," he said, glaring at them before he noticed the ship. "Oh…that…you can't fly can you?"

"No we can't," she said, ready to fight. "But if you're the only one here, we can't let you leave to spread the news that we are here. You have to die," she said, rushing forward to swing only to find a metal shield in her face.

With a dull "thunk" sound she crashed into it then onto the ground, her head spinning as she little Beowolves running around her head. She heard the sounds of battle, gunshots and slashing of metal on metal, and the sound of metal breaking under pressure but her head was swimming too much to tell what was going on until everything was quiet.

Raising her head, she felt the cool touch of metal on her neck, right under her chin, tilting her head up to see Sparta's frowning face. As she looked around, she saw that the other White Fang soldiers had been knocked out and were laying about, groaning in pain.

Tilting her head up gently, he got her attention. "As I see it, you have some options. You could, A, leave the White Fang, which seems unlikely. You seem to have a lot of hate in your eyes." He let out a long sigh. "It's a shame kids like you have such more hate in your hearts."

She glared at him. "Shut up!" she growled. "What do you know about me?"

"Nothing." He shrugged. "Moving on. Option 2…wait I was doing letters. Erm… Option B is that you run away as fast as you can and build a raft while evading Grimm and myself and try to escape. Option C is that you become my prisoner along with your people and leave on the next bullhead over on your way to jail. Option D is…" he grinned slightly at this. "I look the other way and let you guys escape. I'll even fix your ship for you so long as you leave and never return."

She blinked in surprise at this last option as he withdrew his shield. "But…you said…you don't care for the White Fang."

"Yeah, but you're just a kid," he said, looking down at her as he walked over to the ship. "And I don't like abandoning kids, even if they're misguided."

"I'm 14! I hardly classify as a kid!" she argued, following him. "So you're really going to just fix it up for us and let us leave despite the fact we tried to kill you?"

"Well…in your defense I did throw one of your guys that was knocked out in front of you before coming here...his name was Carlos right?"

"Yeah."

"So yeah…not really your guy's fault…anyway…" he looked at the engine. "If you let me fix that though…then we can all be on our separate ways."

As he went to walk over to it, Blake slid in front of him and blocked him from going to it. "How do I know you aren't just going to sabotage it?"

"I told you," he said with a groan. "I don't like abandoning children…so just move out of the way," he said, planting a hand on her face to push her away.

Letting out a squeak of surprise she turned around with a full glare that dug into his back as he walked to the engine of the ship. "Asshole…"

"Shut up," he said in response. "I'm doing both of us a favor here. I'm not that bad when it comes to these kind of things, my dad ran a mechanic shop after all."

She blinked in surprise. "Really? But you're a well known hunter…known for causing many problems in the White Fang…you expect me to believe that you came from humble beginning and became such a fantastic fighter over time?"

He looked over and nodded. "Yah…that about sums it up really. Lots of training, lots of sparing, and plenty of juice."

"I thought it was milk that helped people grow big and strong," Blake said, walking over to a nearby stump to sit down.

"No it's juice. I promise you it's juice," he mumbled as he grabbed the repair kit the White Fang pilot had been using, looking through it before pulling out a screwdriver. "Well… let's see what we got here," he mumbled as he looked into the engine.

He began taking it apart, piece by piece and let out a soft whistle when he found the problem. "You guys have a damn good bit of luck."

"Why's that?" she asked, walking over to look over his shoulder. "Is it bad?"

"No, no, well yes but that's not why you're lucky." He reached it, unhooked something and tossed it out onto the ground. It was the dust fuel cell used to keep the engines running. "It got shot," he said, pointing to the bullet hole. "But it didn't blow up. Had it blown up, your emergency landing into my forest would have been very different."

Her eyes went wide with shock. "Can it still blow up?"

"Yes," he said before he walked over, picking it up and hurled it into the sky. Once it was up there, his shield split it two down the middle and he grabbed two handles on the inside. They shifted into pistols and with one shot from each, he made the canister explode in the air.

"Huh…hope nobody gets worried about that…" he mumbled as he turned back to the engine. "Might cause some problems."

"Who?" Blake asked, walking back to sit on a fallen log. "Is there anyone else on the island?"

"Well there's Grimm of course…and well…who knows?" he said, not elaborating. _As long as she doesn't find out about the city, then we won't have any problems…probably… who knows at this point?_

Back the observation tower, Michelle looked out and frowned at the explosion. _Was that a flare? Is it an emergency? Is he calling for help?_ Her eyes went wide at the thought. _What could make him call for help? Damn…_ She bit her bottom lip and bounced around, not sure what to do as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Ugghhh! Damn it all!" she screamed as she quickly went down the rope ladder and ran back to town, gathering everyone she could to launch a rescue mission.

Back at the ship, Sparta was humming softly as Blake read a book, having pulled it out of somewhere, only she knew. He leaned back and wiped his brow, the temperature in the jungle picking up as time wore on. "Do you have any water kid?" he asked Blake.

"Not a kid," she grumbled as she stood up, closing her book which she slid into the crook of her arm. She walked onto the ship, opened a cooler and pulled out two bottles. "Here."

"Thanks," he said, taking it with a grateful smile. "Kid," he teased, a grin on his face.

As Blake walked past him, she reached out and hit his head with her own bottle, making him chuckle in response as she sulked away. "Not a kid…"

Taking a large swig of water, he looked back at her. "Hey, wanna wake up your pilot? I'm nearly done here, so it shouldn't take much longer." He tossed a tool into the repair kit only to grab another. "Give me, like, 5 minutes and we can go our separate ways never to see each other again."

"Alright." Blake walked over to the pile of unconscious White Fang goons and began poking his nose, trying to wake him up while Sparta worked on the engine. Everything was nice and peaceful for a solid five minutes until a rocket came hurling out of the forest headed straight for the ship. Sparta had seen it before he heard it, and had began running for the girl and away from the ship.

"Get down!" he called out. Blake saw the rocket go flying past his back and covered herself, curling into a ball. Sparta swung around in the air and raised his shield to protect him from the blast. The rocket hit the ship, sending it into flames and Sparta flying through the air. His shield had protected him from the blast itself, but at the same time it had sent him flying back until he hit a rock, half of his aura getting drained at once.

Coughing for air, he stood up, his vision swimming. _What…the hell? Is the kid alright?_ He thought right away, looking around to see she was alive. _Good…_ He looked up at the forest. "Is it someone from the village?" he called out.

"Huh? Chief?" Ten or so Faunus walked out from the forest, blinking in surprise. "What were you doing here?" The person talking was a leopard Faunus, his ears twitching in confusion.

"That's my line!" he growled. "Why are you guys out here?"

"Well…we saw your flare and thought you needed help…or more she did," he said, pointing back to Michelle who was behind him, having lead the group to this area.

"Damn…" he growled, rubbing his face with one hand. "Anyway, since you're here I could use some help." He pointed to the White Fang soldiers. "Tie them up. We'll ship them back ASAP, and the girl…the kid's part of the White Fang." He saw looks of surprise and sighed. "I know right? Who knew they hire children nowadays…"

She withdrew Gambol Shroud and went to swing, but before she could do anything he was behind her in a flash, shield raised.

 _He's fast!_ She thought, using her semblance to dodge, only to still feel a shield on her head. She crumpled to the ground as Sparta looked at her with a sigh.

 _Damn…I was hoping just to get this over with, but I guess life isn't so simple is it?_ He turned to the others. "Tie them up," he ordered. "We'll take them back and give them two rooms, one for the little missy here and one for the soldiers. I'll stay and guard them unless something more urgent comes up, understood?"

The Faunus near him nodded and began grabbing vines to tie up the soldiers and the girl so that they could carry them back. Sparta had Michelle carry Blake, giving her a knowing nod. "Stay with her when she wakes up," he said into her ear softly as she walked by. "Call me when she is. Maybe I can convince her to leave."

She grinned at the idea. "You are a convincing talker when you want to be."

"Yeah, sure," he said, rolling his eyes only to feel a playful slap on his cheek.

He looked down in surprise at Michelle who was chuckling darkly. "That's what you get for seeing my underwear. Do it again and I'm gonna kill you," she warned.

Nodding and chuckling nervously as he saw her evil grin, he took a step back. "Understood ma'am."

"Good. Keep your scroll on if you want the call by the way," she said as she turned to go tie up Blake.

Sparta shouldered his shield and stared out at the forest, a frown creeping onto his normally smiling features. _Why do I have a feeling like I pissed off someone big with their capture._

Elsewhere, in Vale, Adam felt a shiver run up his spine. _Am I catching a cold? Or was it a feeling of dread?_ He asked himself before shrugging to return to a map of Vale, marking fresh targets.

 **Please review. Follow and favorite only if you want to or think this story deserves it. Ciao!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Welcome to Chappar!

**Okay so fanfiction decided not to tell me about the fact I got a review until today,,,yeah, little late there. I'm glad you, or you guys, whatever it is, liked it. I hope you continue to read, cause hell, it's just nice to write something people like. Also yay for 4000 word chapter! I also did extra spellcheck because as I checked my previous chapter, I saw some pretty odd mistake I made. I shall fix them soon! And I lied about weekends only cause I like this story :3. Anyway, everything below is stuff I originally had planned out until I saw that lovely review that made my day :3.**

 **0_0** **I am surprised that 4 people have taken interest from 2 chapters…like…it's new for me okay?! I usually get one…maybe 2 if I'm stupid lucky… *grins* anyway, have a nice read! And review if you wanna or have something you wanna! Please!**

Waking up with a slow groan, Blake shook her head and looked around. "Where…am I?"

A girl who had been sitting in a wooden chair with crossed legs uncrossed them and looked at her. She smiled wide and stuck out her hand. "I'm Michelle, a Faunus like you!" She pointed to the ribbon on the table next to the bed. "We had to take it off to check for injury. I dunno why'd you'd hide your ears, they're cute!" she squealed.

Blake sat there, confused by everything happening at once, especially by Michelle's reaction. She slowly raised her eyes to her bunny ears and nodded. "You're a Faunus," she agreed before turning her eyes to her ribbon. She quickly snatched it and tied the bow back around her ears, hiding them from view. "So…where's…that guy?"

"Who? Sparta? Oh just wait here, I'll call him, he's guarding your buddies."

Pulling out her scroll, she called him. It rang six times before it picked up and the sound of a groan came through it before, "What's up?"

"She's awake," she said, surprised he was groaning. "What? Tired?"

"No, I just lost a game of blackjack with these assholes!" he growled. In a house nearby, Sparta threw down his cards and walked away from the four White Fang soldiers who were chuckling at his expense. "When I get back we're playing another game and I'm gonna kick your asses!" he called back over his shoulder as he stormed away. "Wait and see!"

"Whatever you say," said one of the other White Fang soldiers, a wolf Faunus named Casper. "Whatever you say!"

Walking out of the room, he raised his scroll back up. "So…what were you saying?"

"You got pretty chummy with them didn't you?" she asked instead. "How'd you do it?"

"Huh? Oh that…" he chuckled as he began sent himself flying from one branch to another. "I apologized for hitting them and everything, and I invited them to cards. Trust me, everyone loves cards as long as they win."

"You didn't sound like you were winning very much."

"No, but it was still fun to play with new people. Not to mention I haven't played blackjack in forever…wanna play with me later?"

"Maybe, depends on whether or not you ever get your ass over here!"

"What do you mean?" he asked, opening the door and pocketing his scroll. "I'm right here. I may be fast but I'm no god of speed."

"Oh…never mind then…" she turned and walked to the door. "I'll be on my way then. Have fun you two, and no saying anything perverted!" she warned Sparta. "I know how you are!"

"Look it was just one time and it wasn't even my fault!" he said as he heard the door slam. "Sheesh, woman…" he looked back at Blake who seemed to be holding back a laugh, her hand over her mouth as her cheeks puffed out and her eyes were filled with mirth.

"Find something funny do you?" he asked, hands on his hips. "Spill. What's so funny?"

"You two argue like an old married couple," she said behind her hand as she finally let it out and began rolling around on the bed, laughing her ass off.

"Oh hah hah hah," he said, rolling his eyes. "First off," he said as he raised a finger. "I'm not old, I'm only 25, that's not old. Old is…old is like 50. When I hit 50 you can call me old!" He raised another finger. "Second. I'm not interested in her!"

Still giggling she looked at him with a cocky grin. "Well if you're not old, then I'm not a kid."

"What?" he stared at her in confusion "Did I hit you too hard and mix up everything in your head? Is your brain only filled with nonsense now? You're still a kid and I'm not old, end of discussion. Got it?"

"I got it gramps," she said, relaxing on the bed as she gave him another cocky grin.

"Oh my god I hate kids," he groaned, putting his head between his hands as he shook his head back and forth. "I hate them! They're so aggravating and give me headaches!"

"Quit whining!" she said, kicking him in the stomach with enough for to make him go "Oomph". "Anyway, thanks for the nice room…after you smashed a metal shield into my head."

The room was actually quite nice in comparison to some, but it was still a prison room. The window which was usually uncovered instead had metal bars over it. There were still wooden walls and a tree came through the side of it, but next to it was a bookcase stocked with a little bit of everything ranging from mystery to history to more adult themes. A table was next to the bookcase by the window with a lamp on it. In the center of the room, on the ceiling, was a fan with a light attached to it that was spinning slowly. Another, larger, table sat against a wall with four chairs around it with some board games next to it. There wasn't any TV or radio or anything like that in the room as why would you ever give a prisoner something like that?

"Yeah, sorry about that, but you looked like you were going to kill my friends which I can't really have you doing." He said with a small chuckle as he offered a hand. "So would you like to restart?" He gave her a charming smile.

Blinking in surprise at the kind gesture, she nodded and took his hand, shaking it slowly. "Sure…" She stood up from the bed and stretched. "You're an odd one you know that?"

"I get that a lot," he said with a soft chuckle. "But why do you say I'm weird?"

"Because you're giving me a second chance?" she asked. "Because you're the only one guarding White Fang soldiers and myself? Because you're treating us like guests more so than anything?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "You think too highly of me. All of your people have been disarmed, and your weapons are hidden. The majority of the people here can handle themselves in a one on one fight anyway, so I don't see a problem."

"Hmm…touché," she said as the pair walked to the door. "So…why are you giving me a second chance?"

"Cause I think you're just an idiotic kid whose going crazy over some words someone else said. Ya know, like a lot of kids these days," he said with an arrogant grin, looking back at her over his shoulder. "Think for yourself, don't let someone else do it for you."

"I believe in the White Fang's cause!" she argued. "There's no way humans and Faunus can live side by side! Have you seen the oppression we've suffered?" She stomped her foot. "If we can't exist with them, we have to remove them!"

"Girl you're talking like I'm not a Faunus like you." He pointed to his ears and grinned as they twitched. "See? And I do share sympathies with your cause, I don't think humans and Faunus can live together, but only because radical ideas exist. So…" he opened the door with a flourish and gestured for her to exit. "We escape."

She came out and stared in surprise as she looked around, her eyes darting around as people moved from house to house. "What…is this place?" she whirled on him. "You said this was private property! You mentioned nothing at all about there being all of…" she swung her hand around. "All of this!"

"But I never said it wasn't this, right?' he asked with a cocky grin. "Now c'mon, I'll show you about. We just got this brand new walkway system made, and I've been wanting to use it for a while." He pouted like a child and grumbled, "Unfortunately it only goes connects a few vital places and not my hut…"

"Um…sure?" she said as she followed him down the ladder to the ground, going down first. "But…what is this place?"

"Ah yeah. Blake, meat the brand new city and site of the city of Chappar*. This is my little pet project possible due to the wonderful donations of those from the city of Vale as well as the lovely 100 volunteers that came here to help set it up." He turned and grinned down at her. "Pretty impressive huh?"

"It's…different…" she admitted.

"Well you know since you brought it up," he said as he cracked his neck. "Might as well brag a bit." He pointed to the houses. "Every house has its own solar panel set that provides electricity to their house and a place to store it. There's a battery that you can't see. A friend of mine, my leader actually, developed this set up and let me use it." He grinned a bit wider. "It's good to have good friends…anyway! Thanks to the fact we're in a rainforest, collecting water isn't a problem and everyone has their own showers and baths so there aren't any problems…"

He went on a rant on how the place was built by the might of Faunus strength until he felt a cardboard box lid hit his head and his soft ears, getting him to shut up and whine, "Ow….who was that?"

Turning around, he saw standing next to Blake with her hands on her hips, Michelle. He gasped and took a step back. "Are you stalking me?" he asked with feigned fear.

"Tch, you'd enjoy that more than anything," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Everyone knows you love attention. Anyway," she turned to Blake which had taken a cautionary step back. "Hungry?"

Thinking for a moment she nodded. "I could use something to eat."

"Good then follow me!" She glared at Sparta. "This idiot can talk a lot, but that's about it. Has he been ranting about how great this town is?"

When Blake nodded, the other two following Michelle, she let out a deep sigh. "Figures. This guy does nothing but talk and talk." With each insult he acted as if he was being stabbed. "He can't do anything and he's not even a serious leader. He spends more time joking and messing around than anything. He can only fight and be an idiot. If he hadn't been the one to make this idea and fund it, he would have never come here."

"That's harsh," he said with a small whine as he turned and winked at Blake. "She's just mad cause I'm the best fighter on this island…and cause I saw her underwear."

Blake's face went crimson at the mention. "What?!"

Michelle's face went just as crimson as she pulled out two daggers that had been holstered to her side and swung at him. "Asshole! You said you wouldn't bring it up!"

"I know," he said, bringing his shield up to block her swing with a playful grin on his face. "But it was just a joke, no reason to go crazy over it."

"Shut up!" she growled only to find her arms in the air from a sudden push from Sparta that sent her knives flying as he pushed her away. Another push sent her tumbling to the ground with a small squeak of surprise.

"C'mon now hon," he said, smiling as he offered her a hand with a peaceful smile. "No fighting. I'll let you get payback later, okay?"

Still glaring at him, she turned away to grab her swords which she sheathed. Throughout all of this, Blake had been standing by, watching them with a small grin. "You two would make a great couple in this book I'm reading," she said with a coy grin.

Sparta bent down and picked up a nut, bouncing it in his palm before throwing it, hitting Blake squarely in the center of her forehead. "We're not a couple!" he groaned in annoyance. "Anyway let's just get some food already! You've made me hungry with all this talking."

"Sure I have," she grumbled. "All you do is talk!"

After a moment of silence, Blake butted in. "So…anyway…what's that?' she asked, poking to a larger than normal building hanging in the trees.

"Oh that," Sparta said, walking up next to her with a smile. "We had to hire a few doctors from out of town to keep us in check, you know? I mean we can't exactly do everything here yet, so it's a rudimentary hospital of sorts." He grinned. "We have lots of meds though. We need them in case we ever get a disease or something sweeping through. Oh and the doctors are all Faunus," he said with a grin. "We don't need human help here!"

"Huh…that's…surprising actually." Blake stared at the building. "How many doctors do you have?"

"Oh…about five or so," he said with a shrug. "They're nice people and good doctors. I don't really need them for physical problems." He made his aura appear around him, a dull green glow surrounding him. "I got this! But I once got food poisoning when we were setting up," he shivered at the memory. "Twas not any fun let me tell you. But the doctors kept an eye on me, gave me lots of water, normal stuff. " He smiled as they began walking away from it. "It's not like we can constantly ship them out after all. The nearest hospital is the one in Vale…and that's still half a day's worth of flying."

"I guess that would make sense…" Blake said as she watched the building recede from her vision. She turned to look forward as they founded a corner in the path only to stare in shock. "What…is that?" she asked in surprise.

"Ah yeah, I mentioned this earlier too!" Sparta said enthusiastically. "This is-"

He was hit in the head again, but this time it was Michelle's hand. "Shut up and let me do the tour a bit too!" she grumbled.

"Alright, alright, you could have just asked," Sparta grumbled as he took the lead. Climbing up the rope ladder first.

"So…" she gestured to the structure in front of them. "As a "just in case" measure, this massive thing is used to hold us all in case we were to be overrun by Grimm and we weren't in any structure." The structure spoken of was a giant walkway make of interwoven vines and planks of wood. "This took us two weeks of constant work to build this. It goes from the hospital," she said, pointing to where the back of the hospital was, a small set of double doors behind apple to be seen as they walked over to the ladder. "And it goes over to the mess hall."

Blake opened her mouth to ask another question but was caught off as Sparta called down. "C'mon slow pokes! I thought you guys said you were hungry, why aren't you up here yet?!"

Groaning, Michelle grabbed the ladder and began climbing up. She looked down at Blake and smiled. "C'mon. Let's go grab some lunch."

"Sure…?" Blake was so confused by all of this, especially by how she was being treated by them. They were acting as if she wasn't even a prisoner, just another person in the colony. As she reached the top, she looked around, eyes going wide at the hustle and bustle. People were climbing up and down ladders as they brought materials up and down with pulleys, many working on expanding the walkway.

"Ah yeah," Michelle said. "We're expanding it so that we can reach all houses and summon meeting up here in case of emergency."

With that the two adults turned, walking towards the mess hall without a care in the world. Michelle did keep on glaring at Sparta's back fairly often whenever he yawned lazily.

"Um, excuse me you two," Blake called out, making them slide to a stop and turn around. "Why are you acting so nice? I'm a prisoner and I attacked you! Shouldn't you be more cautious?"

"Huh? Why's that?" Sparta asked as he yawned again. "I can handle you, and you have no weapons, so why should I be worried?" he gestured to the jungle. "And we're on an island. You can only run out to say hello to some Grimm, and where's the fun in that?" he asked as he turned back to walk forwards. "So there's no escape for you guys, just try to enjoy your time here for now."

"Heh heh…what he said," Michelle said as her ears bounced. "You guys can't really do much harm, so why worry? Just enjoy your stay. Who knows, you might even want to stay and live with us here."

Blake didn't react, just looked on in surprise as the two walked along, shaking her head. She followed them in silence before they reached a massive, long hut that stretched across two massive jungle tree, wrapping around each of their trunks. Two sets of double doors led into them, and the delicious smell of cooked food wafted out from within.

Just smelling the food made Blake's belly growl like a beowolf, her hands darting down to cover it as the other two laughed at her crimson face.

"W-what?!" she asked, glaring at them. "You're hungry too aren't you?"

"Yeah but our stomachs don't sound like a pack of Ursa, do they?" Sparta asked with a cocky grin as he walked over to one of the double doors and opened them with a smash. "So let's get some grub!" he called out.

"Hey shut up boss!" a random Faunus said, throwing a slice of pizza at him that he caught in midair. "Some of us are trying to eat!" It was true. Since it was noon-ish, there was about 50 others here, and yet there was enough space to hold all 100 on wooden tables with wooden benches.

He flicked off some olives before he bit into the pizza, waving to the deer Faunus that threw it at him. "Thanks for the pizza!" he said, turning to the other two with an even bigger cocky grin. "So, what would you like?"

"Fish would be good," Blake said while Michelle moved ahead, hitting Sparta on the back of his head.

"You watch her while I go get a salad, alright?"

"Alright, alright, stop hitting me would you!" he grumbled. When he was hit he had lost his grip on the slice which had swiftly fallen to the ground. "Cause I lost my pizza thanks to you…"

"Quit your whining," she said with a roll of her eyes. She saw his pouting face and sighed loudly, "Fine, then consider that my payback for earlier."

"Fine!" He glared at her as she walked away before he turned to a snickering Blake. "Oh ha ha very funny wasn't it? My food is important to me, not to mention I don't like wasting resources."

"Yet you have such comfy rooms," she said as she calmed herself down and began walking with him.

"They keep moral up. Knowing you can go home to somewhere comfy and relaxing is a good thing. It makes them work harder cause whenever someone finishes a project, they get a day off." He shot her a grin. "Unless you're me."

"Well, it's not like you do that much work anyway," she said with a coy, playful grin.

He just looked away and pouted. "I do to! I make sure everything is working fine and punish those who aren't doing their jobs right! I'm the leader!"

"Whatever you say," she said as they reached their destination. As if it was a buffet, the food sat on trays spread out across metal tables that had heaters under them, keeping the food warm.

"Fish is this way," he said, gently tapping her head to lead her down the aisle to where freshwater fish from the river they had were fried. "Salmon," he said, looking down at her. "Want some?"

She nodded, turning her head to find a plate and fork to grab the food with. Sparta handed one because the silverware was behind him. "Here."

Blake smiled and nodded her thanks, grabbing the plate and sliding some fish onto the plate. She then walked down the aisle and grabbed some fries from another compartment, adding some mixed vegies to the side.

"For the record," Sparta said, holding a plate with pasta on it. "We don't have much besides water and lemonade to drink. I mean we have beer, but that's shipped in and costs a lot, so it's saved for parties." He led her to a table where Michelle was sitting. "After all, we aren't made of money."

"Then how do you have so much food?" she asked. "This place couldn't have been around for too long right?"

"He's spent maybe half of our funds on money," Michelle said, jabbing her fork covered in carrots and lettuce to Sparta who smiled wide. "He says it's to keep everyone healthy until we have our first harvests. I think he did it so he can have all the pasta he wants though."

"That's mean," Sparta said with a cocky grin. "I do whatever I think is best for the group, that's all!'

"Sure," she said with another roll of her eyes. "Eat up kid." She said. "Nobody gets to stay here free after all. You gotta do work too."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked as she began nibbling on her piece of fish. "What do you mean work?"

"Well, I put some thought into it," Sparta said, looking at her with a wide grin. "And I've chosen you to be my sparring partner for a while!"

"What?!" Michelle and Blake said together. Michelle spoke first, asking, "What do you mean? I thought we were letting her work with the farmers to show her what life was like!"

"I know that's what I said at first, but…" he gave another cocky grin. "I'm the boss and I wanted it. I'm allowed to be greedy sometimes."

Michelle stood up, glaring at him. "I'm gonna kill you, you know that?"

"Calm down," Sparta said, sipping his glass of water. "I mean I need to watch her right, so is there anything better than sparring to use to watch her?"

"That's…you…" Michelle growled as they went into a staring competition, one calm and relaxed while another was annoyed and aggravated, her ears perked up in anger. "I'm gonna-"

"It's fine Miss Michelle," Blake said, putting her way in and grabbing their attention. "I want to train, it would be a good way to test my abilities."

"Then it's decided!" Sparta said happily. "You'll be my training buddy until this is all over. There aren't any problems if she agrees, right?" he asked the rabbit Faunus across from him who slowly nodded.

He smiled and turned back to Blake. "Alright, I know just the place to do it too!" he said cheerfully. "A nice clearing nearby, kinda pretty actually. Has flowers and the river runs past it but don't fall in," he warned. "It's freezing."

"Okay," Blake said as she went back to eating. "But no complaining if I kick your ass. Also, will I get my weapons back?"

Chuckling at the idea of losing to her, Sparta nodded. "Just don't underestimate me," he warned as he twirled some pasta onto a fork. He jabbed it at her teasingly. "I'm not known as Iron Shield Sparta for nothing hon."

*I named it off the word Chaparral which means vegetation consisting of mainly thorns and bushes. I dunno, it seemed to fit a jungle and it sounded nice. It is not based of a wrestler or something I found while googling this. Note to anyone making a name, google it to make sure it isn't related to something weird…just sayin.

 **So yah! I hope it was okay and good and maybe even great to some! Favorite and follow for more, and review pleassse! Even if fanfiction is slow to tell me when I get a review.**


	4. Chapter 4 - Training? Kinda?

**At this point, I'm just gonna back to the old me and say this, "I promise nothing with my update schedules!" Originally it was gonna be weekend only but I like this story so now I write on the weekdays for it as well...just...I guess this will be my primary story and my already made one will be secondary cause why not? Also please review (Unless fanfiction is being lazy with telling me I have a review I haven't read). Anyway, read on!**

After a large, hearty lunch the trio walked out of the large cabin like structure, Sparta patting his full stomach as he looked at Blake. "It was good wasn't it?'

She nodded and let out a large belch. "My compliments to the chef," she said, her cheeks a soft pink. "So will we go fight right now?"

"In a sec,' he said as he yawned. "I could really go for a na-"

Michelle slammed a foot into his back, pressing against his shield to send him stumbling forward in surprise. "What was that for!" he asked as he whipped around, throwing his hands in the air wildly. "I just wanna take a nap!"

"But now you're wide awake aren't you?" she asked with a coy grin. "So you can't go to sleep anytime soon, can you? Not to mention you're our boss, act like one would you?"

He rolled his eyes and let out a lazy yawn. "Nah. Life gets boring when you try to act better than you are. I'm like this, so why try to hide it? Why should I act like someone I'm not?"

"Because a boss is supposed to keep some kind of appearance!" she argued, but seeing her words were having little to no effect on him, she just huffed and turned away. "Never mind… you're too stubborn."

"I know right?" he asked cheerfully before he swung around to Blake. "So c'mon, follow me. We'll go and train, you," he said, turning to Michelle. "You need to go back to that tower of yours huh?"

"Alright boss," she said turning away as she walked away from them. As she got ready to go down the ladder, she turned back and called to him. "Sparta!" He looked over at her and smiled. "You're not a bad boss, just a bit of an idiot!" she said with a small grin as she began climbing down.

Feeling a small bit of heat rise to his cheeks, he laughed and shook his head. "We're all a bit of idiots," he said with a chuckle. "So anyway Blake, wanna grab your weapons?"

A quick nod from her set their future actions in motion. They both went to his home first, Sparta telling her to stay outside on a small platform outside his house that acted as a patio of sort.

He came out with her gun/sword and tossed it to her. "Here," he said with a wide smile. "So shall we go?"

A few minutes later they arrived in the clearing he had spoken of previously. "Isn't it pretty he asked as they entered it. "I personally love this area. It's great to relax in. I was thinking of making this into a park once we have everything set up," he said with a smile. "But it'll work for training for now."

Blake walked around, exotic flowers stirring around her feet as she looked out upon the hidden meadow surrounded by the towering trees around them. The flower pets, filling all the colors of the rainbow and then some were spread out like a blanket. A small rise in the center was where Sparta was walking to that was devoid of flowers, as if they were a sea, and that hill was an island raised out from the ocean of beauty. As he walked over and sat on it, Blake walked over and looked past the hill, eyes going wide.

A crystal clear stream with pink salmon flipping out of it with loud splashes coiled through the ground, splitting the rest of the sea of meadows from the towering trees behind it.

"Ya know, when I was surveying areas for a new city," he said softly. "I actually felt bad about choosing this place. Look how beautiful this area is," he said, gesturing to the river. "It's wonderful isn't it?" he didn't wait or expect an answer as he continued. "I want to keep this place as beautiful for as long as possible, but it might not last for long with us here." He sighed deeply. "But this is the best place. Not to mention, we can always make money by offering this city as a rest stop between Atlas and Vale."

"It is beautiful," she admitted as she smiled at the sight. "But I don't think you should worry too much."

He sat up in surprise and looked at her with a tilt of his head in surprise. "Why's that?"

"I have a feeling you won't let something like that happen to this place. You don't seem like the person who would give up on a cause once you have it in your mind. You seem and sound pretty stubborn."

He chuckled and shook his head as he stood up. "Yeah, I might. Who knows? Only time will tell, not like I know what history holds after all, but I can guess how the future on this hill will play out." He lifted his shield and held it in front of himself, his eyes looking over his shield. "I'm gonna kick your ass."

"C'mon gramps," she said as she held her sword with the pistol attached to it, sheath in her other hand. "At least give this "kid" a challenge before I knock you down."

The two circled each other on the hill slowly, their eyes focused on the other as they waited for one to make a move.

Sparta ran up first, determined to control the battle the way he wanted to. He swung his shield up, Blake bringing down one blade to block his swing but underestimated his strength as he sent her reeling back.

She lost her balance and found herself on one foot, falling backwards. _Shit!_ She thought as she used her semblance to create a shadow clone so she could fall backwards and roll away from his shield.

Caught off guard as he found his shield going through a fake copy, h took a few steps back and got down on one knee, raising his shield as he waited for an attack to come from Blake who was a few steps away.

She rushed him, throwing Gambol Shroud out, missing him entirely. As it flew past his head, he noticed something odd. _Is it connected by ribbon?_ He asked himself. He got his answer as he heard a gunshot behind him. He whirled around and blocked it with his shield, watching the blade ping off above his head.

Only to hear the sound of feet on grass as she ran up behind him. He didn't have time to fully turn around, instead only turning halfway. Her foot landed square in the center of his side instead of his back, making him groan in pain as he stood up.

"Damn, that was a mean swing," he said as he stood up. "Shame though because I know your tricks now."

"Do you?" she asked as she ran forward to meet him. She swung her gun out to the side and pulled the trigger, sending it flying out to the nearest tree. She then ran next to him, using her semblance so that when he swung, he hit nothing but air. She wrapped the ribbon around him, trying to pin his arms but instead it wrapped around his waist, only slowing his movement.

"Won't work," he said with a grin. "Anyway what do you plan on doing with the ribbon around my waist? You gonna pretty me up for a ball?"

"You'll see!' she called back, having quite the distance on him as she began circling around.

 _Was your plan to trap me to a tree and beat me up like that?_ He asked himself as he began running to the tree to create slack. _Won't work hon._

He could run faster than Blake and was able to create enough slack so that when he reached the tree he could launch himself onto the tree, plant both feet and spring backwards.

He landed away from her ribbon as Blake scowled at him, bringing back Gambol Shroud to her.

"So now that you've had your pretty little turn to show off," he said teasingly as he walked forward, hanging his shield down on one arm loosely. "I do believe it's my turn."

He rushed forward with his shield in front as he swung forward. She dodged back but was caught off guard as she felt the cold metal still hit her. _What?_ She took several steps back in surprise. _But I dodged it…I was too far away for that to hit!_

"Aw, you dodged," he said with a sigh. "Was kinda hoping to end it quickly." She glared at him as if he was scum on her shoe. "Hey don't get so mad, it's just because I'm better than you, that's all. I mean I've even seen your semblance, but you haven't seen mine have you?"

She slowly shook her head. "Ah but you have in fact, let's see if you can point it out for me." He rushed forward and swung his shield forward to her which she moved to hop over. She was already above it when she felt something coil around her leg. Looking down in surprise she saw a grapple hook coiled around her right leg.

"Caught you~" he said as he brought her down to earth, slamming her into the ground. Once she was down he released her from the grapple, only to launch himself on top of her, pointing the shield at her neck, a few inches away. He pressed a button and the blades popped out, a small grin on his face. "Checkmate."

Glaring up at him, Sparta withdrew the blades and stood up, offering her a hand. "Here," he said, feeling her grab his hand so that he could pull them up together. "There we go," he said as he patted her back. "I hope slamming you down like that wasn't too painful?"

"No but it was a surprise," she admitted as she rose up and looked him in the eye. "You went to Beacon correct?"

"Mhmm, but honestly," he chuckled and shook his head. "School didn't do much for me. Maybe got me to be less annoying, but I still came out as the same person. If anything, experience was the thing that it gave to me that was really important."

"Experience?"

"Yeah, that stuff helps like hell. You learn how Grimm and people fight only from experience and nothing else. Strategy and everything helps, but it isn't as good as someone who knows their enemy."

"If you say so," she said, still sanding as she looked around then back down to him. "Was that all you wanted for training? If so that's really sad."

"Nah, we'll do more later, but why not relax a bit?" he asked as he let out a lazy yawn. "No harm in relaxing every now and then."

Deciding it wouldn't be a bad idea to relax, she stretched out near him, staring up to the trees nearby, their leaves casting swaying shadows. "This area really is nice…" She said as she looked over at him, only to see that his breathing had slowed and he had fallen asleep.

 _This is a really nice place, even if it is new,_ she thought. _I really wouldn't mind living here…_ That was her thought before she fell asleep, her tiny cat ears twitching happily.

The sun setting over the small town, golden light filtering through leaves, Blake woke up slowly with a lazy yawn. As she sat up, she rubbed her tired eyes and looked around. _Is it already afternoon?_ She thought as she yawned again, stretching her tired body. _Wait…where's Sparta?_

She stood up and stretched again, and heard soft grunts nearby. Looking over, she had to take a double take. Sparta was covered in sweat, although he was fighting nobody. He was simply shadow boxing, but he was taking it as if he was fighting someone for real. He had his eyes closed and his shield was on the ground as he swung around as if he was fighting an invisible enemy.

With his eyes still closed, he turned and bowed to her. "Like the show Blake?"

"How did you know I was up?" she asked in surprise. "Your eyes are closed!"

"Simple," he reached out to the side with each arm. "I just made my body hypersensitive to all sound. That's my semblance, I can increase the strength of any sense body part. I could increase my strength, speed, hearing, taste, or sight." He grinned and looked at her with his eyes open. "Of course I have limits, but it is a really useful ability. I knew where you were thanks to hearing," he said, pointing to his ears.

"What kind of limits?" she asked, walking down the hill to the area of flowers he was standing at.

"Well, to start off I can only have two senses increased at any one time," he said with a smile. "I can only use my semblance for 10 minutes." He let out a soft chuckle. "We I first used my semblance, I could only use it for a minute." Staring into the sky, he thought for a few moments. "Hmm…oh yeah, after I use it, I have to wait a while. I've never timed it, but it's something I just know, ya know?"

"I guess," she said with a shrug. "I guess it'd be like how you know when you're hungry?"

"Yeah," he thought for several moments before nodding and smiling. "That's a good one actually, it's a lot like that!"

Stretching with a groan. "So anyway, wanna go back? We can play some cards and relax and grab some din din."

"Din din?" she asked, confused by his choice of words.

"Dinner. I call it din din sometimes." He smiled warmly at her. "So would you like some din din?"

"Yeah, sure?" she said as the two walked out of the wonderful field of flowers. She looked at him as they walked, looking away as he wiped his sweat covered face on his shirt. _He's like the polar opposite of Adam. Nice, trusting, and not a fan of violence. Hmm…he's not a bad person, perhaps a bit naïve, but that's all._ She looked back at him and shook her hand sadly. _It's odd to see someone like him so naïve._

The two arrived at the ladders to the walkway and climbed up on two separate ones, each reaching the top at the same time. Unlike earlier, the walkway was devoid of construction but it was clear that a pathway to a nearby home had been swiftly constructed.

"Huh…impressive," she said as she looked at it. "I wouldn't expect something to be done so quickly here."

"Why's that?" he asked, curious. "We have a dedicated cause that we all want. This will be the first Faunus made settlement after all, so we all work hard."

"Then what do you do?" she asked, looking at him through the side of her eye. "So far I've only ever seen you talk and train, well, that and show me a nice looking area." She gave a coy grin. "Was Michelle right? Do you really do nothing here besides get credit for making this group?"

"No, not true, I do other stuff…" He looked at the shifting emerald leaves above him. "I…uh…I order people around and tell them what needs to be done, I say what goes where…and uh, yeah!" he grinned at her. "I'm not useless or a mooch! I do work too. Actually speaking of work I need to check on the wall," he muttered. "I should do it soon."

"Until then, dinner?" she asked as they stood outside the mess hall, gesturing to the large doors. "Please can we go eat?"

"Yeah," he said as he walked past her, Blake following right behind his heels. "hey," she asked as they got into the aisle for food. "Who cooks? And why don't you cook?"

"Ah, well, about 10 or so of our guys can cook," he said cheerfully as he grabbed silverware and a plate. "We have others who clean, and they always eat first so they can focus on cooking." He looked away, a small grin on his face. "and I don't cook cause I tried making a grilled cheese once at home and the fire department had to be called."

She stared at him in shock. _It's a grilled cheese…how badly did he mess it up?_

"I kinda tried to make it in the microwave with tin foil…" he muttered. "I didn't know tin foil wasn't supposed to go in the microwave…and I didn't know grilled cheese is supposed to be cooked on a pan. I tried making a pizza once too!" He shook his head sadly. "I made fresh charcoal instead."

"Can you at least cook on a campfire?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Cause someone had to cook whenever you went on missions, right?"

"Wasn't me," he said as he grabbed some fettuccini alfredo and placed it on his plate. "That was our leader's job, he was a great cook though." He let out a soft sigh as he remembered the delicious delicacies he made. "Nobody could beat his dumplings. Those were just great."

She grabbed some more salmon and added veggies to the side, noticing he never grabbed any greens. "hey!" she said as he began walking away to a table, getting him to stop and turn. "Get something healthy too!"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes mom," he said with enough sass to kill an ursa as he grabbed an apple and walked away. "Remember who is the kid here," he said as he bit into it, chewing it quickly before sitting down. "I can eat whatever I want, you need to eat healthy."

"Whatever," she said as she sat down across from him. "Where's your wife, Michelle?"

"Not my wife," he grumbled as he looked around. "Well, she's obviously not here, so she's probably up on her tower at the lookout. Huh…meh whatever, she'll be back soon enough."

The two began eating their separate meals, quite for a few moments before Blake tapped the table in front of his plate, getting his attention. "Mhmm?"

"Who was your leader?" she asked. "I don't know much about the previous generations, other than who people are and what their strengths are. The White Fang doesn't consider information on what teams people were on as important."

He smiled and raised a finger to his lips. "Shh, don't say their name. People here don't react real nice to them." He smiled warmly. "But those that found you guys made sure to keep quiet. But my leader was none other than the very nice and friendly to all besides asshole, Salvador Alizarin*."

Her eyes went wide in surprise and she had to swallow the water she was drinking that had threatened to shoot out. "What?!" she screamed, getting people's attention so she lowered her volume. "You were on his team? Didn't he wield a massive, 5 foot long sword?"

"You know it!" he said cheerfully. "It collapsed in on itself and looked damn awesome…and kinda terrifying to fight," he said with a chuckle. "But he's one of the best cooks you'll ever meet and a damn good person! I bet you can't find a better human than him. Well maybe Oz, but he doesn't count.

"Oh, well, I guess that's okay," she said with a shrug. "But I think you said something about cards, right?"

"Oh yeah, sit tight, let me get them." He stood up from his half eaten plate of food and left the bench. "I'm gonna go get them, sit tight alright? I'll be back soon," he said as he got up nad left the table.

Blake watched him leave, smiling just a little bit, the corners of her lip turned upwards. _I could live here, it's really nice here, and someone could train me to be even better, and he's nicer than Adam. He's still a bit of an idiot, but I guess you can't have everything in life._

* Alizarin Crimson is a color. It's a shade of red.

 **Hope it as enjoyable! There will be more to come! Follow and favorite if you wanna! Ciao people!**


	5. Chapter 5 - An eventful evening

**Hihi! Another chapter! This has more fighting and stuff so yeah...enjoy! Also I'm sick and stuff so don't expect much from me very quickly.**

Humming happily as he walked back to the mess hall, a deck of cards in his hands, he quickly climbed the ladder and walked quickly towards the massive structure. _I hope she likes Blackjack and knows how to play_! He thought to himself. _I'm not the best of teachers after all._

Opening the double doors, he swiftly moved back as a knife went flying past him, sailing onwards until it dipped down and was embedded into the floor behind him.

"Aw, who did that?" he called out, peaking his head back in with a nervous chuckle. "That's not very nice you know."

"I did asshole!" Michelle screamed at him as she stormed towards him, her eyes filled with fury as she grabbed his shirt's collar, yanking him down to her level. "Where were you?"

He chuckled nervously as he pulled out a deck of cards. "I was grabbing these from my house…why? Did something happen?" he asked nervously.

"Figures you'd be out getting cards!" she growled. "You have a job to do you know, try to take being our boss more seriously!" She released his collar and pushed him away, swiping the cards from him. "I'll be taking these."

"What! Hey! Those are mine!" he protested, pouting before he looked at the grinning Blake still sitting at the same table they had been at before. "You have to play with her then," he said, gesturing to the cat Faunus.

"Fine I will. I could use a break…unlike the person who's always on break," she said before pointing to the door. "Anyway I need you to go to the wall. I saw a large pack of beowolves coming. If anyone gets hurt…" she cracked her knuckles, leaving the threat hanging.

He took a nervous gulp and nodded. "Alright then…I better get out of here, huh?"

She nodded and he turned around, sprinting on the platform. He launched himself off from the platform, whipping out his shield to use the grappling function. He swung from branch to branch, being careful to avoid hitting houses before he landed with a roll, sprinting through the forest.

 _Shit, you know maybe I should have asked her for directions before I decided to run out like this?_ He asked himself. _Oh well…wait…my scroll!_ He stopped running and yanked out his scroll, bringing up the messenger function. Quickly typing on it, he hit send and sent a message reading, _"Where exactly are the Grimm going? Wall isn't really small."_

It took less than a minute for him to get a response. _"Figures an idiot like you would forget to ask something so important. It's the West side, so if you're running straight out from the platform, go left."_ It read.

Chuckling softly, his smile vanished as he sprinted towards that area, his face becoming serious. _Isn't that where they're working right now?_ He asked himself, biting his bottom lip. _Let's hope I'm not gonna be late._

Bursting through a wall of foliage, he swung out, cutting it in half as he came into the area the wall was being built. He looked at it and grimaced. People were running and screaming as they escaped from Grimm that were hopping over the half built steel wall.

 _Damnit! That concrete steel's expensive! Not to mention we don't have a lot of it cause our last shipment was blown up by pro-human terrorists._ Looking at the Faunus running he sighed. _And they will only bring more Grimm. Oh well, nothing I can't handle._

Walking out to the hole, he waved to those who were running past him, hitting a button on the inside of his shield. Blades shot out from the sides and began spinning, the shield becoming basically a chainsaw.

He calmly went to the breach, climbed over it and looked over the edge. Some workers were fighting the Grimm the best they could with hammers, axes, or any tools they had with them. But it was obvious that it was a losing battle, that they were slowly being pushed back or knocked out.

"Get back idiots!" he called out to them, getting some of their attention. "Grab the wounded, I'll take care of this," he said as he cracked his neck. "Cause this is one of the few things I can do right," he grumbled.

He launched himself from the wall's hole and swung the bladed shield through the first Beowolf's throat, kicking it away. The worker looked up at him gratefully, but Sparta was already moving to the next one, focused only on fighting. He pressed another button, a crack appearing down the center of his shield as he broke it into two sections. Holding one in each hand, he swung around, cutting through two more as the blades slowed to a stop. He now was just swinging a blade edged shield.

He increased the strength on his legs and eyes, so that he could view the situation more clearly and move faster. He sped around the group of Grimm, his blades slicing through beowolf after beowolf, dissolving the monsters that they faded away.

His eyes darted around the battle field, taking quick stock of the situation. Everyone except for a few workers huddled together, maybe 20 beowolves surrounding then, all trying to protect two downed people.

 _Damn, why didn't then run?_ Sparta asked himself with a small huff. He ran forward, spinning in a circle as he took out 10 of them before the other half ran away, scared off by the man's blades.

Turning to look at them, he barked, "Drop your tools and run for the wall! Grab your fallen guys!" When they hesitated, he barked again, "Do it already!"

They nodded and swiftly picked up their two fallen comrades, two people holding each as they quickly shuffled over to the hole in the wall. Taking another quick sweep of the area, he noted that everyone had been cleared, except for him. Letting out a soft sigh, he noted as more Grimm flooded from the jungle. Some more, bigger, nastier beowolves, a handful of Ursa, and a King Taijitu.

Letting out a weary sigh, he shook his two halves, two gun barrels popping out on the sides. "Hot damn, I sure got the whole party here," he said with a soft whistle, raising his guns. "Well c'mon then, don't be shy. There's plenty of me to go around!"

The smaller beowolves, the most inexperienced and stupid ones ran forward, swinging at him. He didn't even have to use bullets as he swung his blades into their bodies, giving up his eyesight boost for strength as he ripped through them. He swung as fast as he could, becoming a blur of blades and decapitated Grimm before slowing to a stop. "So…anybody else?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Grimm trying to crawl up and through the hole. These Grimm had larger, whiter masks as they tried to break in. He slammed his shield together and pointed the small hole on the shield at the wall. A quick press of the trigger and he was flying through the air, past the outreaching hands of Grimm as he slammed himself into a wall with an "oomph!"

He stood up slowly, clearing his head as the Grimm stared at him in shock. "Alright, so who's next?" he asked, grinning cockily despite his screw up. The three nearest beowolves launched themselves at him, but even with his shield together, he was able to rip their bodies apart with brute force.

He separated his weapon and stood there. "Hold up, you guys ain't coming in through here," he said, raising both guns, his arrogance radiating from him. "This is my town, and nobody, not Grimm, not the White Fang, and no purists will mess it up!"

With that statement he pressed down on both triggers, sending bullets flying into the Grimm below. As they began to realize they couldn't stand still, Beowolves dying left and right. Two of the younger Ursa rushed his position on the wall. They only had enough space for one at a time to come up though, and as he reached him, Sparta swung his shield onto his back and pumped his entire semblance into his arms and legs, purely for strength.

He reached up and grabbed the two massive paws that swung down at him, holding the creature of Grimm up and away from tearing off his face. "Bad…Ursa…" he growled as his legs began to buckle. "Gets…punished!" he growled as with as much force he could muster, he sent the Ursa tumbling backwards onto the other one, sending both rolling down the hill.

Standing up slowly, bringing himself to his full form, he grinned down at the other creatures of Grimm, most acting quite nervous. They were backing away slowly, even the younger ones at having seen his strength.

"Aw what is that it?" he called out as over half the group began slowly sulking back into the forest. "Is it?" He pulled out his guns and began firing at them, making the Beowolves yip and howl as they ran away. "Are the creatures of fear scared of me?!" he taunted. "Are you?"

Despite lacking an ability to understand human speech, or any emotions besides anger, hate, and a desire to consume other living creatures as they screamed in fear, the Grimm were getting pissed. Someone would have to be blind, deaf, and immune to any kind of influence to not see how arrogant he was acting. The retreating Grimm, even the older ones, turning back and rushed him with everything they had.

"Huh…? What…?" he asked to nobody in particular, confused as to why they would do something so idiotic. "Eh whatever, I get to increase my kill count, maybe I'll even past Alizarin's!"

Firing more shots into the Grimm rushing him, his normal bullets still capable of killing one if hit through the head, he found himself running out of bullets with a lot of Grimm left, and no time to reload. "Aw crap," he grumbled as he took his bladed half shields and held them in each hand. "Guess I'm getting up close and personal!"

As he went to launch himself at the Grimm, he felt all the extra strength he had put in his legs and arms run out. He fell to the ground, his body feeling like a sack of bricks. "Fuck!" he swore as he brought himself up slowly, shaking his head. "Not right now!"

He had barely enough time to stand up straight before the first beowolf rushed him. He slid to the side and slammed his blade into its neck, slicing through it quickly. He stood up and repeated it as another beowolf ran up at him, slowly backing up.

 _I'll give them the ground here,_ he thought to himself. _But I won't let them push into the forest._

He slid down from his position on the wall, allowing them to rush out onto the side that originally, no Grimm was supposed to be allowed onto. He found his energy slowly returning, wishing it would come back faster, but… _I gotta work with what I got,_ he thought.

More beowolves came rushing out with the intent to kill, Sparta quickly dismembering them all into pieces of limbs. As he was doing so, a group of more inelegant beowolves ran out to the side, trying to go to where the town was.

"Not today!" he snarled, running out in front of them to dice them up. As he was doing so, he landed some sloppy stroked, getting slashed a bit in return. Even though he finished them off, and most of the beowolves, he still had some to take care of, a King Taijitu, and 3 Ursa with very, very large masks.

He ran forward, finding that more and more of the beowolves were trying to make a dash for the town. He ended up using almost all his energy stopping them, still with 4 powerful foes yet. The remaining Ursa circled him, the King Taijitu's two heads looking at him with careful, calculating eyes.

He was panting for air, breathing hard as all three Ursa rushed him at once. He was able to block two but the third one landed a vicious hit on his back, tearing into his aura. He grunted in surprise, slicing into the two he had stopped, leaving vicious gashes on their chests. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop them. They stood up, wobbling on their feet but still able to fight.

The fresh one rushed him first, which was easy enough to block and retaliate against, his blades cutting off both of its forearms. He then whirled around and sliced off its neck, putting it down. Panting for air as he stood there, he gasped in pain as he felt two Ursa pounce on him from behind, knocking him to the ground. His aura was drained as he rolled out from under them, gasping for air.

Two swift swing later, and he had only a King Taijitu left, its White head raised above him, swaying softly. _Okay…all I gotta do…is kick its ass…with no aura…yeah, I can do this,_ he thought before he realized something. _Where's the black head?_

He got his answer as a searing pain shot through his body. He looked down and saw the fang from the black head sticking out of his side, the monster biting into him. Snarling and growling, his eyes wet from the pain as the fangs tore through him, he slammed his weapon into its eye, digging through its head until it stopped moving.

"Damn that hurts!" he growled as he reached down, opening its jaws and pushed it off. He turned and looked up at the White head that was zooming down to him. He sidestepped it with a stumble, stabbing into its eyes with one half.

He didn't put enough force into it to kill it though and it just snarled in pain, raising its head and trashing it around as it tried and failed to loosen the blade in its eyes. Holding the other half as a throwing weapon he held it perpendicular to the ground before throwing it. It flung end over end before digging into the monster's throat.

The King Taijitu chocked on the blade slowly, whatever was the Grimm's blood squirting from the cuts before it rolled over, dead. Walking over slowly, one hand on his side he yanked out his shield halves and put them together before setting it onto his back with a groan of pain.

Taking out his scroll with one hand, his other clutching his side, he called Michelle. "Hey Michelle, I'm done."

"Took you long enough!" she growled. "Where are you? Are you alright?"

"Well…" he looked down at his blood soaked hand. "I'd say a little bit less than alright… honestly…"

"What? What do you mean? Do you need a doctor?" she asked quickly.

"Call the doctor, call the doctor," he mumbled into the mic. "Something must be wrong with me…uh oh," he said before collapsing, everything becoming black, his scroll falling to his side.

"Hey…Sparta?" Michelle asked worriedly. "You're messing around right? ...right? Sparta? Sparta?! Spartaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!"

 **I made a Metal Gear reference, and a song reference…forgot what song though. Meh. It was Monster or something…anyway I hope it was an enjoyable read! Sorry about any typos and that its shorter... made this while sick :P Anyway…ciao!**


	6. Chapter 6 - Medic! I Require Assistance!

**Hi Hi! Another chapter is out, please enjoy and review if you wanna! (stupid fanfiction said I had 3 review for half a day before it let me see it...grumble grumble grumble...)**

As he seeped back to reality, his mind slow and foggy, the first thing he noticed was a dull, consistent beeping. _Could someone shut that off?_ He thought to himself. _It's so annoying. It's even worse than an alarm clock…_

He opened his eyes slowly and found himself staring at a blindingly white ceiling. _Where am I?_ He asked himself. _I'm not at home that much is clear…my roof is made of wood. The hospital's roof is made of wood, so where am I?_

He tried to move and lift himself up, but instead just let out a sharp hiss of pain. Looking down he saw that his entire side was bandaged up. "Oh…right…" he said aloud. "I was bit by Grimm…" He suddenly remembered the battle, the ending, and the amount of blood he had lost. "That was a lot of blood…" he muttered to nobody in particular.

He sat in silence, hearing the constant beeping of the machine next to him that was hooked up to him, along with several IV drips with nothing else to listen to or do. Letting out a bored yawn, he looked up at a clock that was hanging on the wall and watched the minutes tick by. _Seriously though where am I? I've never been here before…_

He stared at the blank TV hanging on the wall, turning his head. _I got it…where's the remote? Maybe something good is on the news,_ he thought to himself. He saw the remote on a small table next to his bed. He stretched his arm, but his fingers only grazed it. It didn't matter how many times he tried, he just couldn't reach it.

Sighing, he looked away from the TV and out the window, watching a small blue bird fly by. "Uuuuugh, is there anyone in this damn place!" he finally growled, loud enough to be heard through the wall.

As he groaned, a nurse came in, a human nurse. She walked over and looked at him in surprise. "You're awake?"

"I dunno, am I?" he asked, blinking up at her. "Or am I just locked away in some dream? For all I know I could be dead right now and this is Purgatory. Last thing I remember was losing a lot of blood thanks to a Grimm, so I dunno if I'm awake or dead."

"You're not dead at the very least," the nurse said as she checked the machine and began writing down small notes on her scroll. "Although you were very nearly dead when we received you."

"Ah, well, thanks for fixing me up doc, but uh…" he looked out the window again. "Where am I? Which city is this?"

"You're in Vale's Emergency Hospital," she said as she turned to the door. "Oh, and you have a visitor or two, should I send them in?"

 _Huh? Visitors? Oh it's probably whoever brought me here,_ he thought before nodding. "Sure, that'd be great if you could."

The moment she walked out, he heard some grumbling before the door opened and in walked Michelle. She stormed up and hit him in the head, making him cry out in pain and glare up at her. "What was that for?!"

"For being an idiot!" she growled back, hands on her hips. "Everyone back home is worried about you you know!" she said, watching his eyes dart away as he realized what she said was probably true. "Not to mention you cost us a lot with having to ship you all the way out here to Vale! Then there's medical fees and everything, so you've cost us a lot you helpless idiot!"

He couldn't even manage a chuckle at that. He just lowered his head and sighed softly, "Sorry."

Seeing how upset he actually was, she frowned and placed a hand on his head, gently rubbing one ear. "Anyway, as long as you're fine it's all good," she said before taking her hand away. "Are you okay?"

"I can barely move," he admitted. "So I probably have to sit around for a while." His eyes went wide. "Who's gonna guard the town?" he asked quickly. "I was the only skilled fighter, so who's on guard duty?"

"I hired some Hunters, Faunus only," she said, looking at him with a small grin. "To guard it for us. They should have arrived a few days ago. Don't worry, everyone will be safe."

A moment of silence fell between them until Sparta asked, "So anyway, how did you get me here? I know I was bleeding a lot, so…well…just tell me the story."

"Sure thing…so…after I got your disturbing message I…"

"Alright lazy asses!" she called out to those in the mess hall. The majority turned their heads towards her. To get the other's attention, she climbed ontop of the table she had been playing poker with Blake, screaming "Listen to me you assholes!"

Everyone was quick to shut up and turn their eyes up to her, becoming quiet. "It seems, that our boss, the idiotic Sparta…got…screwed up." People began to look back and forth, muttering as a general worried atmosphere formed.

She slammed her foot on her table, getting their attention as she glared at them. "If you start getting worried you'll only bring more Grimm. Don't you guys trust Sparta?" Guilty looks were shared by those who had begun whispering. "As far as I know, he's injured, but there aren't any more Grimm left!" she said confidently. "He had enough time to call me and ask for a doctor. I need two people to run and grab the doctors, and help carry their crap," she said to those gathered in the room. "Anyone willing?"

Two Faunus, one a fox and one a cat with white ears, stood up and went to the door, the fox calling back, "We'll take care of it boss number two!"

"Alright, go, and I'm not boss number two!" she growled. As the two left, sprinting towards the medical building, she turned to the others. I want everyone who knows some kind of fighting to stand up right now. Doesn't matter what kind, even if it was something you learned on the street."

Only 10 of the 40 or so gathered in the room stood up, including Blake. She looked down in surprise at her, but didn't comment. "Alright, now those willing to come and check on Sparta' condition, move your asses to the door!"

She walked over to the door, all 10 following her close by. Talking more quietly, she said, "Honestly, I dunno what condition he's in. Expect the worse," she admitted. "Alright?"

They nodded, but one Faunus, a rabbit Faunus like Michelle asked nervously, "What's the worse condition possible?"

"The worst condition where he could still be alive?" she asked aloud, thinking for a while. "Probably…if he was missing a limb or two. That's probably the worst possible condition."

With those solemn words, the group of 11 people, Michelle, Blake, and 9 others, began walking towards the medical hut, only to see the two they had sent come out with heavy bags over their backs, while three of their five doctors came out, two of them carrying a stretcher they had ordered from a Faunus owned manufacturing company.

The only downside to buying Faunus made items only was that, in comparison to the companies that used all but slave labor when it came to the production of their goods, they had to pay more, almost like a premium. This included anything from medicine to metal to food.

The groups met up at the ladder, the two with the packs of medicine already walking down as Michelle met up with them. "What can we expect to find wrong with Mr. Sparta?" One of the doctors asked her. "I mean, it would help if we knew what was wrong so we knew what to bring."

"I don't know, so just bring whatever you have in the packs," she said as she went to the ladder, one hand already on a rung. "Just get moving would ya? I don't wanna come too late to find him dead."

The doctors nodded and quickly followed after her, the other 10 "guards" coming down after them. As they reached the ground floor, the two with packs already standing there, she started walking at a brisk pace towards where she had seen the hole in the wall. The others had to jog after her to catch up, the last two having to sprint to get close to them. _Stay alive you damn idiot,_ she thought to herself. _Don't you dare die._

As they reached the scene of the battle that had occurred on the inside of the wall, she covered her nose. "Don't you love the smell of rotting Grimm?" she asked sarcastically to the others that were coming up behind her.

They had to cover their noses as well, except for Blake who had fought Grimm before and the doctors which had dealt with vomiting patients with explosive diarrhea…not even Grimm smelled as bad as that. "Where is he?" one of the doctors asked, gesturing for the two that had been carrying their tools to set them down.

"I don't know, let's search for him," she said as she began walking around, impressed he was able to handle so many Grimm and only get screwed at the end. _Maybe he was hurt early on, but just kept on fighting,_ she reasoned. _Regardless, it's impressive._

As the group began searching, one of the 10 she had brought along called out, "I found our boss! I found Sparta! But…well…he…"

The others quickly rushed over to where he was. He was face down in the dirt, his shield on his back and his scroll on the ground next to him, covered in mud. One thing obvious about his condition was that it wasn't good. A large pool of blood had formed under his unconscious body, and as they took off his shield, they saw that whatever had hurt him had gone through his body.

"Damn that's one hell of a wound," one of the Faunus members said. "Is he gonna be okay?"

Michelle turned to the doctors who pushed some onlookers out of the way. They rolled him onto his chest and cut off his shirt, tearing it into pieces which they chucked to the side.

An older one of them, a woman named Mora with gray, drooping dog ears looked at him with worried eyes. "He'll need a hospital," she finally said. "We can stabilize him, but we don't have near to enough equipment to keep him alive. We need to call a ship from Vale to come over and pick him up."

"Why not Atlas?" another doctor asked. "They might have a faster ship we could use."

"Tch, Atlas?" Mora scoffed. "They'd implant him with some fancy mechanical device instead of just fix him up. No, we should send him to Vale," she grumbled. "I can at least say they have good doctors there."

"Can you please just fix him up as well as you can?" Michelle asked quickly, trying to not show that she was worried. "I'll go and get in contact with Vale's hospital and call for a bullhead, alright?"

"Alright," Mora said, turning to the other, younger doctors. "You know what to do." Together they made a makeshift bandage with the gauze they had, completely stripping off his shirt in the process so they could work more easily.

They quickly slid him onto a stretched, the four strongest of the Faunus there grabbing each end to quickly jog through the forest back to the medical hut. Blake and several others were left behind the guards the hole in the wall for the moment.

"I can trust you to help them right?" Michelle had asked Blake before leaving. "You won't turn your back on them if the Grimm attack again?"

"I only don't like humans and how they treat us," Blake said firmly. "I have nothing against Faunus, or those who choose a way like this to escape them." She smiled wide and nodded. "Don't worry, I'll do everything in my power to help them."

"Thanks," Michelle said with a smile, patting her head. "By the way you ought to lose the bow, you look better without it." With that odd bit of advice, considering the situation, Michelle turned and left her to guard the wall.

She had made a dash for the watch tower she spent many days in. She quickly shot up the ladder into it and pulled out her scroll. She hooked it up to the radio and called their bullhead company.

"Hi yes, I need an emergency run to us at Chappar," she said quickly. "We have an injured that we can't take care of, and we need to take him to the hospital."

She didn't have to explain any further. They said they would send the first pilot available over as soon as possible.

"Thanks," she said before hanging up. She then went ahead and called Vale's hospital for those in need of critical care. She quickly explained the situation, that they would receive a patient in about 12 hours.

"Who would that patient be?" the person on the other end asked. "And what is their ailment?"

"Ugh…I dunno he took a damn spear through his chest!" _Well basically, I mean I dunno what the hell created a hole like that in his chest!_ "So will you or will you not have something ready in emergency care for him?"

"Um…sure?" the operator said, confused. "Um…I've never had a situation like this before, but I guess it's serious?"

"Yes it is! Just have it ready!" she growled before hanging up, yanking her scroll from the radio.

She ran to the ladder and slid down, ignoring the burning feeling as her hands ground up against the rope. She shook them after landing, feeling the pain as she ran back to the massive walkway.

As she ran to the ladders that led up to the walkway, she passed a pulley system. In front of the medic's hut was a pulley system that was used whenever they had injured patients, incapable of getting up to the hut by themselves. They strapped the person down to the stretcher, tied each edge to a different rope and lifted the person up to an opening where the stretcher could then be brought in so that the person could be treated.

As she passed the pulley system, it was clear he had already been lifted up, the stretched already up at the top of the pulley system. Looking up and seeing this, Michelle smiled and quickly climbed up the ladder to the platform.

Her hands ached from the previous rope burn, her hands quickly moving up, one over another as she moved, wanting to check on his condition. As she reached the top, she ran over to the double doors that led to the doctor's hut, opening one of the double doors to walk into the room. She looked around, doing a double take. More than just Sparta were laying on cots they had bought, nearly 10 others.

 _What? Why are there so many?_ She asked herself in surprise. _Was he late?_

One of the doctors noticed her looking around and frowned. "Do you have something wrong too Miss? We are kind of occupied here."

"Were all of these people injured during the Grimm attack?" she asked instead, looking at the cots. While none of the injuries seemed life threatening, or that anybody would be out of commission for long, they weren't nothing to laugh about either.

"Yeah, more or less," the younger doctor said, pointing to a few others. "They were already here with stomach problems. One person here is resting after an asthma attack… but the major worry here is this," he said,, looking down at Sparta.

Michelle walked briskly over to his side, looking down at him. "Is he gonna be alright?"

"Who knows?" the doctor said with a shrug. "He might live…he might not…"

She reached out and grabbed the younger man by his shoulders, squeezing him roughly as she began to shake him. "What do you mean he might?" she snarled. "He's the leader of this colony! You can't just let him die!"

"We're doing all we can ma'am!" he said, eyes wide with shock. "I know he's the leader! He came and talked to me personally to invite me to this place! I'm grateful to him…just…" he looked down at him, Sparta's breathing soft, an oxygen mask over his mouth. "We don't have proper tools here yet. We don't have enough fluid for his IVs, and we need a lot more blood if we were to bring him back to tip top shape."

"Damn," she growled, releasing him as she began pacing in the room, her brow furrowed. "Will he be fine for the next 12 hours in a condition like this?" she asked, looking him in the eyes. "If not, we might as well end his life now."

"No, no, no," he said quickly. "He'll be fine for maybe…24 hours…less…maybe 20 hours like this," he said nervously. "But please, I'll take care of him the best I can."

"Not just him," Mora said, walking from outside with a soft yawn. "I'll be here too, keeping an eye on the youngster."

"Thanks…" she muttered, feeling more relaxed at knowing they would take care of him. Knowing he would have a while also helped. "Well…I see you're busy…I guess I should leave…"

Without waiting for a response she left through the double doors again, heading to her tower. She climbed back up the tower and manned the radio, her scroll in her hand as she stared out, watching the shifting leaves as a soft breeze blew through the jungle.

 _Ugh…get here already bullhead…_ she thought to herself. _I wanna just get this over with._

It was 11 hours until the bullhead arrived. The moment she heard its radio signal, she gave them landing clearance and called the hospital to tell them to get Sparta moving.

 _Don't die on me,_ she thought, walking into the bullhead with him, sitting on a nearby chair as they began to lift up. _You have a job to do, a role to play, and a life to live._

In her version of the story, she left out any of her kind thoughts, anything she did when she was worried for him, and anything that showed she cared. "I really think you were a massive idiot," she chastised him. "And I'm sure many others would agree with me."

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "But I mean…once I'm out, well, everything should be better at the place right?" he said with a chuckle. "Maybe I won't even be needed?"

"Don't say that," she growled. "We need you, despite how hopeless and idiotic you are." She sighed and shook her head slowly. "After all, nobody's good at hiding lies in the truth in comparison to you."

"Oh I can think of some politicians, like Ironwood who are like that," he said with a small smile. "That's a real snake right there."

 **Fuck Ironwood man…but here's my conspiracy theory. I say he works, or is in leugue with Cinder. Why? Gut feeling combined with when he connected his Scroll to Ozpin's computer, a pawn symbol flashed on it. Episode 3 on Season 3. I don't like him cause he's a dick too…**

 **So anyway, hope it was enjoyable! Nai nai cause fuck I'm tired. :3 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz**


	7. Chapter 7 - In the Hospital Having Fun

**Sorry for the wait...just...sick+life=wait. No excuse but I am sorry. Here, enjoy this if you can! I tried something new with the cards, so tell me if it was good, bad, or meh...or okay! READ!**

(Two weeks later)

Sparta was stretched out in bed, groaning like a dying man. Why was he groaning? Although he was to be dismissed from the hospital later that day, he was bored as hell. A pillow came flying at him that he caught easily, sitting up to see Michelle in the room, standing at the other, empty bed.

"Stop whining!" she growled. "They'll make up some reason for you to stay here if you do! They'll say you're sick with laziness or stupidity and try to cure that! It can't be cured!"

Laughing happily that she was here, he smiled at her. "I don't think they're like that here," he said as he took the pillow and set it onto the pile of other pillows, creating a small tower. His hand drifted to his side where two new scars were. One was on his stomach, the other on his back, and both were circular in shape thanks to the bite. "Well, at least I can move a bit. Might be a while till I'm up and fighting…but I'll be able to walk." He looked up at her with pleading, begging eyes, not to far away from a puppy's. "Please oh please get them to release me right now!"

"No!" she said, closing the door before walking over. "Now shut up and watch some TV," she said, reaching out to take the remote from him.

He dodged her outstretched hand, tossing it back and forth between his own hands. "Don't try to steal it from me," he said with a coy grin. "I still have nimble hands."

She reached out and grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it until he began going, "Ow ow ow ow ow!"

"Drop the remote," she growled, waiting until he did before releasing him. She swept up the remote right away, turning to the TV to switch it on, swapping it over to the news. "No shut up and watch!"

"I've been watching TV for the past two weeks non-stop!" he protested, rubbing his sore shoulder. "Give me a break would you?" He wiggled over to the side a bit and reached out. Opening a drawer, he yanked out a deck of cards. "Can we at least play some cards until then? Blackjack? Poker? Anything!"

"No! I want you to shut up and relax!" she said, snatching the cards away. She pointed to the TV, "Watch it and don't talk."

"Something wrong?" he asked after some time passed. "You seem really…agitated."

"It's been a month since we've gone back to Chappar…" she grumbled. "It may not be a lot, but it's still home. I just hope everything is moving along just fine…"

"I mean…they got my instructions right? Of what to build, what to do with the farm stuff and everything?" Sparta asked. She nodded that they had so he smiled. "Well then, everything will be fine!"

"You're too carefree," she grumbled as she sat on the edge of his bed, watching the TV. When she saw something about the White Fang interfering into a Faunus demonstration, she quickly shut off the TV and grabbed the cards. "Never mind…let's play."

"Ah, the White Fang strikes again huh?' he said, having noticed what was on the TV. "That's always fun to see on the news. Ya know, sometimes I wonder why they even bother putting it up there. I mean it only causes chaos. Chaos brings the Grimm, and the Grimm only bring problems."

"Probably because it brings in viewing money," she said, handing him one card face up, a king, and another card down before giving her the same. Hers was an 8. "That's all the bigwigs care about after all, right?"

"Hmmm, maybe?" he said, peaking at his card to see a joker. Sighing he showed it to her. "You forgot to take out the jokers." She quickly handed him another card which turned out to be a two. "But um…it could just be that nothing else important happens."

"Who knows besides the bigwigs themselves?" She said as he handed him a card which happened to be a 7. He stayed so she flipped her card to show that it was a 5. She drew another, a 6, so it ended as a tie.

The cards themselves were odd. A normal deck of cards usually had faces on the face cards, numbers on the number cards, and an "A" on the ace card, but these had an interesting design. The kings through queens had different droids, and the numbers were random with what they had. The aces were changed as well

"Hey, let me see the deck," Sparta said as he stuck out his hand. "I wanna see something." She did so and he began looking through them, grinning. "This is the special edition, Atlas one right? Damn…I swear I have a deck like this at home…surprised a hospital has one like this though."

"Is it rare?" she asked in surprise. "I thought it's just a deck."

"It's not rare but it's a really nice deck." He chuckled and kept on looking through. "Sorry, I got on a tangent, but to continue what we were talking about. He took out the King, Queen, and Jack of clubs which were different droids, the King being a human looking one while the Queen was the white droid and the Jack the black one. "These are said to protect us, yeah?"

"Mhmm, that's right," she said as she watched them set them down on the bed. "From Grimm and from criminals."

He took out the Grimm cards which were numbers 2-9, and all of their suits. "And we power them with dust." He pulled out the 10s which were different colors of the four main dust, red, blue, yellow and green.

She nodded again but looked confused. "Where are you going with this anyway?"

"Oh you'll see, you'll see," he said with a small chuckle. "So we power devices with dust that keep us safe from the horrors of the Grimm. You know what's the one card I haven't brought up yet? The one thing missing from this equation?"

"Well the card is easy, the aces. The card that can make or break a lot of games, and in Blackjack, has more than one use." She shrugged. "What about it?"

"The ace in this deck is this," he laid them down, showing them to her. "And it's the reason I like them. It's the 4 things that keep us alive after all."

On the heart was a ruby heart with a white banner across it, a dove flying behind it. Pointing to it, he smiled, "Compassion or peace, you can take it either way." He pointed to the black clubs which had a city nestled under a rainbow with the sun shining in the background, looking quite picturesque. "Hope for a better tomorrow." His finger slid over to the black spades which had a factory, soft plumes of smoke rising from it. "Ingenuity and creativity, and last but not least." He landed his finger on the last card but a deep, worried frown crossed his face as he saw it.

"That's not supposed to be like that," he muttered as he looked down at it. Over half of it, it was scribbled out in black ink. All that could be seen was a human male with his hand out.

"What is it supposed to be?" she asked as she looked at him. "And don't act so surprised they were vandalized, I mean this is a hospital. Not great people probably come through here all the time."

"Well it's supposed to be a woman cat Faunus holding hands with a human, but someone scribbled out the Faunus." His frown deepened. "I know you're gonna say I'm crazy, but it sends a shiver up my spine to think that people really hate us so much, just cause we're different. To the point where they would vandalize a hospital…damn I mean I know it's a card but it's a hospital for the love of everything!"

She hit his head to keep him from ranting, nodding slowly. "I get what you mean, but there's nothing we can really do about it besides escape. Anyway, you're silly to get paranoid over something so trivial." She stood up. "C'mon, get up."

"Huh?" he blinked up at her and her outstretched hand. "But I'm supposed to stay here until 5…not to mention you told me to be quite and wait."

"Well, I have to keep an eye on you," she said, her hand returning to her hip as she leaned down, glaring at him. "And I'm getting tired of waking up in a hotel, walking over here only to listen to you for two weeks! There's only so much I can read while you whine!" she snarled. "So get up! I don't car what the doctors say, you're fine as far as I can tell!"

As if being called on, a nurse opened the door and peaked in. "Um ma'am, you're being quite loud. Is anything the matter?"

Sparta began snickering, enjoying Michelle's flustered face as she stammered, "Um…ah…no…no thanks…" she said until she turned and looked at Sparta. "Actually, yeah I could use some help. Could you take him off the IVs and everything? We need to leave."

She stared in surprise at the request and slowly shook her head. "Without a doctor's permission or something like that, I can't do much of anything, especially not remove his IVs."

"Oh god fine!" she growled, stomping to the door. "I'll get the damn doctor then! I'm tired of this place!" she snarled, smashing the door back, leaving the confused nurse with Sparta.

"Um…" the nurse said, turning to Sparta. "Does she have anger issues?"

"Nope, she just realllllllly doesn't like waiting," he said with a small chuckle. "I made her wait 5 minutes for me and she gave me a hell of an ear full for that…I can't even remember what I was late for honestly," he said with a large, kind, warm smile. "But could you please stick around? It's rare that she doesn't get her way, and the doctor might need help removing my IVs."

"Sure?" the nurse said, still confused by this entire situation. _Are all Faunus this crazy? No… they're not…we have some that work here that are much more normal than these two._ "Should I call you Mr. Sparta?"

"Sparta's fine," he said as he flopped back down on his pillows. "Never been one for titles and stuff although people still give them to me. Kinda just stopped whining about it after a while." Looking down at the mess of cards on his lap, he began lazily dragging them closer towards himself, managing to get them all despite lying down.

As he began fitting them back into the desk, the Nurse sitting on the other bed, the door came flying open with a crash. Sparta, startled, dropped the cards he had been organizing which fell onto his lap, rolled off to the side and went flying onto the ground.

"Aw…c'mon Michelle," he said as he looked up. "Some tact would be nice! Just once in a while, I'm not even asking for it 24/7! Just so I don't, oh ya know, drop all the cards!"

"Shut up!" she growled. "That's just cause you're a clumsy idiot!" She was currently dragging in one of the doctors that had been nearby. "This idiot," she growled, letting go of his ruined shirt collar, the slightly bald man quickly standing up, "wouldn't talk to me like a normal person, so I dragged him here."

She jabbed a finger at Sparta who was now sitting up in bed. "He's perfectly fine, see?" she growled. "So release him and let him go already! There's nothing wrong with him!"

Walking over to him, his eyes darting over to the terrifying bunny Faunus that had dragged him in, he looked him over. Lifting up his patient gown, he examined the caring on both sides and nodded. "He does look fine, he can leave a few hours early." He turned to his nurse and gestured for her to come forwards. "Come here nurse, let's get him unplugged."

The two of them unhooked him from his IV and all other machines. Michelle walked over and reached out, helping him stand up for the first time in a while. "I got some clothes for you in a bag." She said simply. "I brought them with me cause I knew you were leaving today, so get dressed."

He took the plastic bag and walked into the bathroom a bit slowly, still getting used to his legs. He came out, glaring at her. "Since when was this part of my wardrobe?" he asked with a growl.

His shirt was bright pink with a cat on it, pumping a fist saying, "Go for it!" He had on a pair of neon green jeans. "Where did you even find pants like these? I've never seen neon green jeans!"

She took out look at him and burst out laughing. "Oh my god!" she said between bouts of laughter. She had to stop looking at him, yanking out another plastic bag so she could speak. "Here! Here's the real clothes," she said, tossing them to him. "I can't believe you wore that stuff. I got it from some tacky shop down the street."

"Yeah well hah hah," Sparta grumbled, taking the bag and walking away, heading back into the bathroom to change. "That's was just annoying…"

Coming out in a minute, dressed with a white t-shirt with a wolf howling to the broken moon on the front and jean shorts, he glared at her. "Do you have my shield as well?"

"Security does," she said with a shake of her head. "Wouldn't let me carry it in. Said it might be a "hazard" and "dangerous to patients" and that I'm "too unstable to carry something so dangerous,"" she said, making air quotes around each one. She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Can you believe them? The nerve!"

"I can actually cause that kind of fits you. You are a dangerous, crazy woman," Sparta said simply before he looked up at the ceiling. "Wait…actually all woman are crazy, or at least you and Miranda are…Crist was a quiet crazy," he shuddered at the thought. "Anyway, let's get going."

Still grumbling about being called crazy, the two of them walked to the front desk. When he saw the price tag on the bill for his injuries, his jaw dropped and he just stared at it. "Aw… my poor credit card," he whimpered, holding it out to the woman at the desk. "I'm gonna be broke cause of this."

As the women went to take it, it was taken instead by someone who had walked up behind Sparta. "Here," the man said, holding it out to her. "Put it on my card," he said in a deep and gravelly voice.

Turning in surprise, Sparta's face broke open into a wide, uncontrollable grin as he pounced on the other man. "Hey boss! Long time no see!" He looked up at him with a goofy, childlike grin. "What's up?"

Pressing Sparta's own credit card to his face so he would stop hugging him, the other man let out a groan. "Let go would you? You're embarrassing both of us."

Sparta let go and looked up at him with a small tilt of his head, the man standing a foot taller than him. "So how are things Alizarin?"

 **Again, sorry it took so long but bai! I hope it was enjoyable!**


	8. Chapter 8 - Alizarin says hello!

**Sorry for the wait. I was just lazy. I have a bunch of games I'm playing whenever I'm at home, so I only ever write at school and I haven't had school recently cause of snow so yeah...sorry...also 6 reviews, 6 followers and 6 favorites... :3**

 **Wanted to bring this up. I throw my own, personal ideas into writing. Not sure if everyone does it, but I've done it multiple times here. I did it with the news, I slide my own personality into it, and I slide in other things. I did it here with hot coco! I dunno, I just felt like mentioning this now. Have a nice read! (That doesn't mean everything here is stuff I believe in, some if just for the writing)**

"This is him?" Michelle squeaked in surprise, staring at the 7 foot tall giant with burning red hair. "He's a giant!"

The man standing before her had naturally crimson hair, a soft smile, clear green eyes that looked like shining emeralds. He stood at 7 feet tall with large features. He had large muscles, large hands, large arms and legs, a large, muscular chest, and a large amount of hair that was like a mop. On his hip was the scabbard for his weapon, but not the weapon itself.

"I get that a lot," Alizarin said, taking his credit card back with a small smile. "And if my name is a mouthful, just call me Ali." He then took a full look at Michelle, a playful grin on his face. "So…find yourself a woman huh?"

"What?!" Sparta squeaked, face turning crimson. "No I didn't! She's just part of the colony I told you about in my emails! She's like…my secretary…or second in command… or second mother!"

"Second mother?" she asked, her voice devoid of laughter. "Really? …Really?! Couldn't give me something more dignified?"

"Well I mean, you constantly yell at me, and constantly tell me to improve, so yeah," he said with a shrug. "Like my mom I guess. Anyway, I did, second in command is a pretty good title to have right?"

"…Shut up…" she growled as she looked up at Ali. "So…you were his boss?" Looking 100% serious she asked, "How did you handle him?"

Ali smiled and shrugged. "It's just something you learn how to deal with…kind of like if you were to bang your head on a wall enough, the pain wouldn't feel as bad."

"Hey!" Sparta protested, seeing Michelle nod, agreeing with his statement. "I'm not that annoying am I?"

Both turned on him and nodded. "You are," they said together. Ali broke off and said, "You have no self control, and you're too hyper and never take anything seriously."

Each insult hurled at him made him gasp in pain as if he was being stabbed. As the barrage ended, he was on the ground, gasping for air. "N-no more," he begged. "I-I can't take any more insults."

"Get up lazy ass," Michelle growled, reaching down to yank him up to a standing position, resting a hand on his shoulder once he was standing. "No time to complain, we need to get moving. I wanna get over to our shipping company, and hop on the first bullhead over."

"C'mon now, don't be like that," Alizarin said, placing a large hand on Sparta's other shoulder. "Why don't they two of you join me for lunch instead? I know a few good places in Vale, and I'll pay too."

Sparta grabbed his arm and nodded up at him, seeming eager and pleased by the idea. He turned to Michelle with a wide grin. "C'mon, why not? He's even offering to pay," he said, edging her to his side. "So it's a free lunch…and you get to see the boss of team Cerise (CRSE), so why not?"

Rolling her eyes, she nodded. "Fine, let's go grab something to eat." She looked up at Ali. "So…were you friend with Sparta as well as teammates?"

"Of course," the giant said with a soft, but deep chuckle. "We were the best of friends. Still are good friends right?" he asked as he draped a large, meaty arm over Sparta, laughing loudly. "We've been through shit and hell, but we always come out fine, right?"

"Well…besides that one time at the stripper's place…but we don't talk about that do we?' Sparta asked with a worried look.

Ali returned it and nodded. "We don't talk about that."

A moment of silence fell between the trio, Michelle looked back and forth between the ex-teammates that couldn't look at her. "Okay, what happened at the stripper's place?" she asked, glaring at Sparta. "You mentioned it before, and I wanna know what the hell was so bad about it. What, scared that a woman went after your money?"

"Shut up," Sparta growled, turning angry for once. "Don't make jokes about that day, you weren't there, you don't know what went down."

A large handed landed on his shoulder, snapping him out of his anger. "Remember that she wasn't there, so don't get mad at her for what happened. Also, remember that it was our fault that happened."

"…yeah…" Sparta said softly, shrugging off his hand as he forced a wide grin. "Anyway, let's not think about the past," he said, walking into the front lobby. "Let's get our weapons and get moving. I'm hungry! Hospital food isn't that good after all!"

Michelle and Ali followed after him, Ali stopping her. He leaned down so that their heads were level and whispered, "Don't ask about that day. It's not a pleasant memory for any of us, so just don't talk to him about it…that day is the reason our team broke up."

She stared at him in surprise. _What the hell did happen on that day? I have to know!_ She didn't say that aloud though, just thought it and nodded. "I understand. I won't ask." _For now._

He smiled and patted her shoulder. "You might be good for him. Just remember not to bring that up and everything will be fine."

Itching with curiosity, but nodding, she saw Sparta running pack to her, pouting like a child. "They won't give me back my shield," he explained with a groan. "I tried to tell them to look on the inside for my name engraved into it, but they said a woman brought it in, so she has to redeem it…can you do it please?"

"Yeah, sure," Michelle as she turned and followed him to the desk where the armed guard was. She filled out some paperwork and got the shield back, handing it back to Sparta. "Here ya go."

Listing it up, tossing it into the air to catch it, he smiled and nuzzled his shield's inside. "I missed you!" Turning to Michelle, he smiled wide. "Let's just wait for Ali to get his weapon, and we'll go get some good food!"

Alizarin didn't take long, returning with a sword that only looked to have a two foot double sided blade. The hilt had a leather grip and the entire blade was painted a bright crimson. "Alright, so, shall we go?"

"Lead the way boss!" Sparta said with a wide grin, bouncing behind him as the automatic doors opened, Michelle on his heels. They left the hospital into the heart of Vale. Swarms of humans and Faunus walked on sidewalks while cars drove by, the trio turning to the right as they left.

"Ah, Vale," Michelle said softly. "I know remember why I hated it."

"Why?" Sparta asked in surprise. "I thought you liked this city honestly."

"No love lost," she said with a shrug. "I like Chappar more. Sure we have a lot of problems and the like, but we have nice people and we have money and food, what more does someone need? Where as in Vale…there's traffic, there's racism, and worst of all." She shuddered. "There's fast food."

"Not a fan of fast food?" Sparta asked, tilting his head slightly. "That's an odd thing to dislike, but since it's not very good for you, I guess it's okay to not like it."

"I just don't like the greasy fast food," she said with a shrug. "You shouldn't allow anyone to build them in Chappar. Keep the city pure!"

He shrugged. "Not up to me really. I just make sure nothing stupid gets passed and nothing crazy. If people want it, I can't really tell them no. If a company asks for land to build it, I won't mind giving it to them. They just have to pay taxes and employ only Faunus in our location."

"But it's so bad!" she protested. "You should ban it when you have the chance to! As in the moment we get back. Make it as an executive decision."

Alizarin turned back and smiled at the two of them. _They really do get along, huh?_ Aloud he said, "So Sparta, how has the city been? Your little pet project."

"It's not little and it's no pet project!" he grumbled. "I'm going to make a city that rivals Atlas in its might and Vale in its richness! But as to how it's going…it's going well in my opinion. The wall is nearly finished so we can keep out the Grimm," he ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I actually got hurt cause I was defending it."

"Oh really?" Ali asked, getting curious. "What took you down?"

"A king Taijitu after I took out several waves of other Grimm. I maybe took down 30 Grimm, some of them being old Ursa and Beowolves before I was taken down."

"That's acceptable. I'm glad that you haven't gotten weaker from the time we've been apart," he said with a small smile. "I'd hate to have you die." He turned around and placed a large hand on Sparta's head, ruffling his hair. "You're a good friend."

"What about you?" Sparta asked, pushing his hand away to look up at him. "I've heard you've become a big name in Vale from other people I know in this city. Have you been taking up big jobs?"

"I've been doing lots of jobs, it's why I can afford to pay your medical bill-"

"Thanks for that by the way," Sparta quickly said. "It was really nice of you."

"Well I was coming to visit you, Miranda said you were in the area after all." He explained with a shrug. "She's doing the same thing she always does."

"How did she know though?" Sparta grumbled. "She must be working for Vale's police right? Security?"

"Might be, I dunno," he admitted with a shrug. "Who knows what Miranda's up to these days? She was always kind of an odd ball."

 _This coming from the giant,_ Michelle thought. "So…who's Miranda?"

The other two, as if remembering there was a third person in their group, turned back, both sharing a look. "Well…I kinda invited her to the colony, she's a raccoon Faunus," Sparta said, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "She's our team's close quarters swords fighter. She gives me a run for my money, and she's really good. She's also the researcher and is good at setting up a spider's web of information." He shivered. "She's so good, I swear…she knows more about more people than anyone should know. But she turned it down cause she said it wouldn't be any fun."

"That's…not really explaining much," Michelle said. "So she was just a teammate? Not a friend or anything?"

The two shared a look. "Well…" Ali said slowly. "We were good friends…I mean we're still friends but things are kinda awkward between us."

"Why's that?" she asked, before realizing maybe she shouldn't have. _Damn, what if it has to do with the stripper's place?_

"Well…" Ali looked embarrassed, his ear tips becoming crimson. "She kinda had…well …a…major crush on someone on the team…and when she was turned down, she kinda became hard to talk to."

"Who did she have a crush on?" Michelle asked. When the two of them looked at each other, Sparta nodded to Ali, silently saying he would explain.

"Well, the last person of our team. She had a crush on Crist, well Christine. Her full name is Christine Ecru," he smiled weakly. "She's our sniper and long range fighter, so they had to talk a lot. Well, Miranda kinda fell for Crist, and Crist didn't really return the feeling. After she confused…things became awkward…"

"You guys are adults, can you just get over it?" she asked with a huff.

"This happened in our last year of school," Sparta continued explaining. "We stayed together thanks to this guy," he slapped Alizarin's back. "But after graduating, we could only stay together until the stripper place, then we all left to do our own things and do our own missions."

 _This is a long walk,_ Michelle thought as she heard the crashing of sea as they neared the docks. "Huh…well…that's interesting…but I have a better question now." She gave Alizarin a death stare into the back of his skull. "Where's the food place?"

"Right here," he said with a smile, gesturing to a café that had a nice sea side view. "I'm sorry for the long walk, but we had time to chat, which was nice, right?"

As they walked towards the small café, Michelle grabbed Ali's large shoulder and turned him around. "First I wanna see your sword." When she saw the weird look she was given, she let out a small sigh and rolled her eyes. "I mean the one on your hip! God…I was told it can become 5 feet long, so I wanna see it."

"Oh, right." Pulling out the blood red sword, he turned to Sparta. "You mind getting us an outside table while I show your bunny friend here how this works?"

"Alright!" Sparta said as he walked into the café, a small bell ringing as he did so.

Alizarin took the sword and pointed the tip to the sky. "Watch this," he said with a small grin. "Oh but please take a few steps back." Michelle did so before he hit a button on the hilt, making it extend to twice its normal length. The blade hissed, steam escaping it through the middle. As it split in half, one blade rotated around until it was 5 feet long. It slid down and a soft click could be heard as it went into place. "Neat isn't it?" he asked as he put his other hand on the hilt, requiring both to hold it when it was at the entire length.

"It's impressive you can even hold it," she said, walking closer to look at it. "It's really big and long."

"Isn't it? It's my proud baby!" he said with a pride filled grin. "I made it myself!"

"You damn Beacon kids, making your weapons," she chuckled. "But it is really neat."

The bell rung again, Sparta coming from within. He pointed to an empty metal table that had an umbrella on it, four metal chairs, several menus in the center which were weighed down by a cigar tray that was empty. "We can eat here if you guys are fine with it."

Ali pressed the button again, folding it back down to its original length. "That's fine by me!"

Michelle nodded but looked back at Alizarin with a small sigh. "There's nothing else it can do?"

"Nope!" he said cheerfully. "It's just a simple, big, sword. It works though, especially if I work with Sparta," he said, gesturing to his friend who was sitting down, walking over to join him. "We make a great team!"

"Only cause I cover your ass all the time!" Sparta said, rolling his eyes. He jabbed a finger at Ali. "I use my shields to protect him while he does all the damage and takes all the credit. It's really annoying sometimes."

"Aw come on," Ali said as he sat down next to him, tall enough to where his crimson hair skimmed on the umbrella even while sitting. "I appreciate it at least, doesn't that count for something?"

Sparta nodded, sighing. "I don't mind doing it. Honest."

Ali smiled at that and patted his back. "You're too good of a person to be bothered by something like that. Now for the important part," he took a menu from the center and looked through it. "What will we get today?"

Alizarin ordered a chicken wrap along with a cup of green tea. Michelle ordered a chicken salad with a cup of coffee. "One sugar and cream," she said to the deer Faunus waitress before them.

Sparta ordered a sandwich platter, reasoning that, "I'm hungry, I haven't had good food in a while so let me pig out." On the side he ordered a cup of hot chocolate. The other two looked in surprise at his choice, waiting until the waitress was gone to talk about it.

"Hot chocolate, really?" Michelle asked with a small snicker. "Isn't that a bit childish?"

"What's wrong with hot chocolate?" he asked with a small glare. "It's good, it's sweet, and it's tasty."

"But it is kind of childish," Ali said with a kind, understanding smile. "Well, you've never liked growing up, so liking something like hot coco isn't that unusual."

"It's not childish!" he argued. "It's just a drink! It's not childish to like hot coco!"

"Sure, sure," Michelle said, patting his back gently, acting over concerned. "It's not childish."

"Shut up…" he grumbled, turning to stare out at the sea. "It's perfectly normal."

They were silent for a while, before Michelle let out a soft, "ah!" She turned to Sparta with a small grin. "While we're in town, before we leave, why don't we go and do business? We can check to see if we got any new donations, and do other small jobs while we're here. I'll even let you use the same hotel room as me, you just have to sleep on the floor though."

"Thanks but I'll just get a room for myself," he said with a wave of his hand. He smiled at Ali. "Well, I guess I'll be in town for a bit before I leave again."

"Good to hear," he said with a smile of his own. "Tell me when you leave so I can say goodbye."

"Will do. I still have your number after all." Their food arrived right then, so Sparta shut up, smiling as a dozen sandwiches were placed down in front of him on a plate, ranging from BLTs to ham sandwiches.

The waitress left to return with their drinks. Sparta took his with a small, grateful smile and nod. The other smiled and thanked her as she gave them drinks. Bowing, she turned and left.

Sparta dug into his food ravenously, acting like a man who hadn't eaten food for the past month which wasn't wrong. He hadn't had good food except for some of the sweets Michelle had snuck in for him.

The others ate their food in peace, idly chatting about anything that came to mind until Alizarin's scroll began ringing. He took it out from his pocket and took a quick look at it, sighing. "I'll be right back guys."

Walking away from the table, Michelle looked after him, confused. "Is it something we should be worried about?" she asked Sparta.

"Nah," he said with a shrug as he went back to eating. "It's fine, he has his own life. It's probably work, or maybe a girlfriend."

Returning to the table after some grumbling and yelling into his scroll, he smiled apologetically at the two of them, quickly downing the rest of his tea. "I'm sorry, but my boss called me out on a job. I gotta go, but have a nice lunch you two."

"Aw, man, really?" Sparta asked, letting out a small whine. He stared up at the giant, frowning fiercely. "Can't you tell your boss "I'll do it later?" You're here with friends… well a friend and a friend of a friend at least."

"I can't just do that, seeing how my boss is a very important person."

"Who's your boss then?" Michelle asked, curious. "I at least don't know."

"Oh it's Ozpin," he said, smiling again. "I'm learning how to be a teacher, and he lets me sit in on some classes. I was thinking of becoming another combat teacher, or maybe a personal trainer, who knows? I have time. For now though, I work and do any odd jobs for Oz."

"Like…?" Sparta asked, getting more curious by the moment.

"I help out students that need it, I take of Grimm that get too close to Beacon… think of it as an extension to our last year of school."

"Ah, alright, that makes sense," Sparta said, still frowning. "But why can't you at least finish your time with us? Why the rush?"

"He said it was an emergency. Something about Grimm trapping a student in a cave during a mission or something. Regardless, I gotta run, so enjoy your meal. Oh and Sparta, call me!" he said as he turned and began sprinting, heading for the nearest bullhead landing station.

Letting out a weary sigh, Sparta sipped his coco. "Damn…I never knew he was working with Oz…but being a teacher would probably fit him." Turning to Michelle, he explained, "He's a really nice guy, but doesn't take crap from anyone, not even teachers."

"Oh, really?' she said with a shrug. "To me he seemed more of a leader…as in someone who could start a new city." She glared at Sparta. "Unlike someone."

"Hey, I'm not that bad at it," he said with a small chuckle. "Sure I'm not the best, but I'm not the worst candidate am I?"

"No, you're not a terrorist," she admitted before she stood up. "Ready to go to the hotel? We'll get you a room, then maybe go to our arms dealer? We will need turrets or guns for the colony after all, can't just defend it with you."

"True, true. Alright, then that's the plan," he said with a grin. "Hopefully this shipment won't get blown up or stolen."

 **Again, sorry for the wait. But anyway, ciao! See ya next chapter!**


	9. Chapter 9 - Dinner and Guns

**Sorry for the wait, but here it is! Number 9! Please enjoy!** ***Bows and walks away***

Exiting the automatic doors in front of the towering "Hotel Sanctuary", Sparta stretched lazily as he turned to Michelle. "Is it dinner time yet?"

"No," she said with a sigh. "For the love of- we were going to see our arms dealer? Remember?"

"Ah, right!" he said, snapping his fingers. He nodded his head. "Alright then, let's go. I was thinking pasta for dinner by the way."

"Is it because pasta is your favorite food?"

"No, that belong to ice cream or mac and cheese, I dunno which of them. I'm just in a pasta mood." He shrugged and smiled wide. "Nothing wrong with that is there?"

"Um…no, I guess not," she said with an indifferent shrug. She put a hand over her chest, feeling her heart speed up. _That's weird…I wasn't exercising recently. It's probably nothing._

The two of them began walking down the road, Sparta leading the way as they entered the business district. Sparta kept on walking, taking them out of the business district into the civilian one. When he entered it he stopped walking, able to do so as there was less traffic on the sidewalks than in the business side of town.

"Um…where are we?" he asked nervously, turning to Michelle with a nervous chuckle. "I'm kinda lost…I thought it was here, but I don't see it."

Michelle stormed up to him and smacked him on the back of his head. "I was following you because I thought you knew the direction!" she growled. "Why have you been leading us?"

"Heh heh, sorry," he said, taking a step back. Raising his hands in defense he admitted, "Well you know, I've never really been to the place, but I do have the address."

"Why didn't you say anything?!" she screamed at him, yanking out her scroll as she pulled out a map of Vale on it. "Give me the place's address."

"Sorry…" he mumbled, handing her the slip of paper. "Here."

She quickly typed it into her scroll and did a 180 turn. "we passed it idiot."

"Sorry…" he mumbled again, his ears hanging low, like a child. "Heh heh…I blame the drugs they had me on in the hospital."

"Shut up." She led them to a shop named, "Guns Galore," and opened the front door, the bell ringing. As they walked in, they seemed to have a chosen a bad time. The owner, a relatively old man, in his late 60s with graying hair and two curling ram horns, was being robbed by a bunch from the White Fang. He looked nervously as the 5 Faunus with guns looked back at the intruders.

Sparta himself was caught off guard, and neither group did much of anything until one of them coughed. The guns came up and pointed at them, one of the five holding onto the keys to the locked gun cabinets. "Get over here!" One of them called out, thinking they were civilians. "You're gonna be our hostages for this operation!"

Michelle looked at Sparta, who nodded, winking at her. He had a plan formulating in his head and wanted them to go along with them for now. The two of them began walking forward slowly, hands raised over their heads as they were told to do so. As they got closer, Sparta said softly, "You know, not only hands can hurt a person."

The soldier looked confused at first before his jaw dropped, a soft squeak coming from his lips as he crumpled to the ground, his crotch having the mark from Sparta's sneaker.

Before the next soldier could react, Sparta swung his foot into his neck, sending him flying and crashing into a display case, knocked out. The other three took note of him and pointed their guns at him, but he still had his hands up.

"I'm just listening," he chuckled. "Don't get mad at me. I'm following your very broad orders."

The others clearly weren't entertained by his words, but they didn't notice the figure behind them. "Don't you remember?" he asked them, keeping their attention on him. "I wasn't the only one here, was I?"

It was too late for two of them. Michelle punched two of them in the back of their heads, knocking them out. Sparta merely ran forward as the other turned to look at Michelle, raising his gun. A quick swift kick to his balls brought him to the ground.

He lowered his hand and smiled at Michelle, raising a hand. "C'mon, that was pretty great."

"It was," she said, returning it with a small chuckle. Turning to the older man she stuck out her hand, "I'm Michelle, he's Sparta. We came to ask if we could order a shipment of guns to Chappar."

"Hey," Sparta protested, running up to the man at the table. "It's my job to do the sweet talking!" he grinned at him. "So as she said, "I'm Sparta. I'm the leader of that Faunus colony you've no doubt heard of," he said with a small bow. "May we purchase some guns for a fellow Faunus like yourself?"

He chuckled at the two of them. "Are you perhaps a couple?"

"No!" They said together, Sparta running a hand through his blonde hair, caressing his cat ears. "Why does everyone think that? Actually…why were those guys robbing you?" he asked, curious. "Why would they rob another Faunus?"

"Stop getting distracted," she hissed into his ear, but he had already gotten the older man talking.

"They didn't take too kindly to when I declined to fund their organization with these," he said, gesturing to the guns. "But I have heard of Chappar. I have no problem helping a group like that." He smiled wide. "You'd be surprised how many of us would be more than eager to fund a group like yours. It's been a while since we've seen some kind of peaceful group trying to help the Faunus. What do you need them for, might I ask?"

"Grimm," Sparta said, becoming serious when it came to business talk. "And from other groups. We can't have Purity or the White Fang attacking us and be completely unguarded."

"Currently," Michelle elaborated, pointing to Sparta. "He's our best, more or less our only, fighter. We had to hire some Faunus Hunters to protect us."

The man's brow furrowed, deep in thought. "What was your name again young sir? Sparta wasn't it?"

"Huh? Oh yeah…" Sparta tilted his head. "Why? Have you heard of me?"

"Are you perhaps Iron Shield Sparta?" he asked, scratching his head. "My granddaughter is a huge fan of yours."

"Huh?" he stared in surprise. "I am Iron Shield Sparta… but…I have fans?!" He seemed more shocked than appreciative of the fact, his eyes wide in surprise. "When did I get fans?"

"Didn't you know?" Michelle asked, a small grin on her face. "Some of the most well known hunters from each school have their own fan clubs. You're no exception you know. I've monetized it before."

He was still shocked, and the older man couldn't help but chuckle at his completely shocked expression. He reached into his drawer and pulled out a photo of Sparta from when he was in beacon. He was younger and more reckless, a wild grin on his face. "If you could sign it for me, I'd be very appreciative. It'd be a great present for her, after all, her birthday's soon."

"Huh? Yeah sure…just…wow…I have fans," he mused, still shocked. He grabbed it and quickly made his signature on the bottom. He was caught off guard as he saw a flash, looking up to see the man holding his scroll, a small smile on his face.

"To prove you were actually here," he explained simply.

"Ah, okay." On the back, he wrote a simply Happy Birthday message, wishing her good luck. He handed it back to him and grinned. "There ya go."

"Alright that's sweet and all," Michelle said, putting a hand on the table to get their attention. "But we have to get to places, get some dinner and all." She looked up at him. "will you sell us guns?"

"I will, is there anything you want in particular?" he asked, curious. "I have a little bit of everything."

"I want whatever is military grade," she said simply. "And two Gatling guns. Everything else I want just to be strong, large weapons, or strong small weapons. We need weapons with a punch to them."

He scribbled some notes down and nodded. "Alright. I can do that. Anything else?"

Michelle nodded. "Ammo. We need ammunition for all of these guns. I want at least 100,000 rounds for the guns, and 20 guns, not including the Gatling guns. 10 light guns and 10 big ones would be nice."

"I can do that. Anything else?"

"200 rockets and 10 rocket launchers in case we get a nevermore or bullhead attacking us."

"100 anti-air and 100 normal missiles then?" he asked.

"Sure." She looked and watched him write down notes on a piece of paper. He slid it over to her and her eyes went wide at the price. "Can we have a bit of a discount?"

"I do owe you for saving my store and for the present. How about…" the man seemed to think over it. "10%?"

"30"

"15"

"20"

"Deal," the man said, offering a hand to Michelle first which she took and squeezed, shaking with him. He then turned to Sparta and did the same, each sharing a smile. "Thanks again for the signature and everything, I'm really thankful for it."

"Heh heh, well thanks for the 20% off." Sparta opened his scroll. "You have my number right?" The man nodded. "Call me if you have any trouble. I'll be in Vale for now, so you can call me if there are any further problems with the White Fang."

He smiled and nodded in thanks. "Also," Sparta continued. "How long until the shipment of weapons can be made ready?"

"It should only take a day or two at most," he said, still smiling. "Most of it I have here. The rest I can order from my own suppliers, like the ammo. They should have it in a nearby warehouse."

"Alright…well then, business is done," Michelle said, looking over at Sparta. "Shall we go?"

He nodded and turned to leave. "Thanks again for the deal!" he said to him.

The old man rapped on the wooden table, getting their attention. "One second young man." He turned to walk away, heading into a backroom. Sparta and Michelle shared a confused look, but they waited. The man returned with several canisters and some clips. He threw them through the air, Sparta barely catching them.

Staring at them for a few seconds, he realized what they were. "Dust rounds?"

"You're a hunter," the man said with a smile. "That shield of yours on your back, it's your weapon isn't it?" Sparta simply nodded, the man smiling wider. "I knew it. You can have those as a gift for having given me such a great gift for my granddaughter."

"Ah, but it was a gift," Sparta protested, looking at the Dust rounds with a small, sad smile. "I shouldn't have a reward for a gift."

"Then consider it just another gift for your work trying to help the Faunus," he said with a chuckle. "So don't worry about it young man. Now if you excuse me, I need to call the cops for these knocked out goons."

"Alright. Have a nice day then," Sparta said as he turned to leave. The bell rang again as he left through the door, Michelle following soon after him, waving to the man.

"He was nice," Michelle said simply as they left. "It's a shame that even nice people like him are getting robbed by the White Fang."

"They rob and steal from everyone not a part of their terrorist effort," he grumbled. Sparta shook his head, returning to his normal, chipper self. "Anyway, time for din din right?"

"You mean dinner?" Sparta nodded. "Yeah sure…know anywhere good?"

"I know a few romantic-ish places," he said with a shrug. "But nothing for a normal dinner. Not really anyway. I mean I know a few fast food places, but I want something better than that."

"Romantic places?" Michelle asked with a chuckle. "Why do you know places like that? Have a lover or something?"

"Had…" Sparta's face became burdened with sadness so quickly, Michelle wondered for a moment if the joy she saw was an act. But as if the sadness was a ghost, it vanished to see him smiling again. "Anyway! I just remembered this really good noodles place that I used to visit often. It was a small shop, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was gone now, but we should still check it out!"

 _I wonder if we should get a psychologist for him,_ Michelle thought to herself. On the outside she was smiling and nodding, allowing him to lead her. _Something seems wrong with him…_ she let out a small groan. _I wish I knew what the hell happened at the stripper place! My gut is screaming it has something to do with it._

Stopping outside a stand, he reached out and raised the red curtain that blocked the doorway. "Hello?"

A younger man, who seemed to be in his late 20s, early 30s, stood behind a counter. "Ah, welcome!" he said cheerfully.

Behind Sparta, Michelle came in and looked around. There were four booths against the walls. A hallway to the side led to a bathroom and a door to get into where the young man was. Where the man was, there were several cookers, a fridge, and a large stove. A dozen stools circled the young man and his workstation. An older man seemed to be in the back, working on making meals for the others.

Those people were the 3 men and 2 women sitting on the stools. Sparta smiled at the young man and pointed to a booth. "Mind if we sit there?"

"No, please go ahead," he said cheerfully. Sparta sat down with michelle across from him, both of them grabbing a menu.

"They added some things," he said with a small chuckle. "I wouldn't be surprised if he went to a culinary school or something."

"Who? Do you know the young man?" she asked, surprised.

"Nope, but I know the older man," he said with a small grin. "He's cooked me many a meal in the past. I've talked to him in the past, and he's always talked about his grandson who was going to come and help him when he was ready to."

"Ah, well then…" she looked up at him. "How do we order?"

"Tell me what you want," Sparta said with a smile. "I'll take it up to him and order."*

"I want the Seafood Special," she said with a small smile. "What are you getting?"

"I'm getting my personal favorite, Super Chicken Teriyaki!" he said, his ears twitching happily. "If they kept the recipe the same, then it should be de-li-cious!"

He went up to the young man and ordered his meal. "Yo gramps!" Sparta called out, getting his attention. "Remember me? Sparta?"

"I do," the older man said, slowly walking over to him with a smile. "You did come here every day after all."

"Well maybe not everyday…"

"Nope, everyday. I can guarantee you that much." The old man looked back at him. "Oh… you have a new lover?" he let out a small sigh. "I thought the other one was a much better fit for you."

Michelle could see his shoulders tense when the older man spoke. He mumbled something too quietly for her to hear, and the older man's eyes went wide. "Oh…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say something that would-"

"It's alright," he said with a small chuckle. "But we're not like that anyway." Sparta's normal voice returned. "Anyway, I'm in own for now, so I'd figure I'd come and visit."

"Ah yes," the older man said. "You're the one who caused such a stir and made that new town? Faunus only correct?"

"Heh heh," Sparta said with a small smile. "Well-"

Michelle stopped paying attention as the talking became about what Sparta had done. She noticed that the son was listening in, as were the others that were sitting on stools. Sparta was eventually handed the two, hot bowls and he smiled to the younger man, thanking him.

Placing the bowl in front of Michelle, she was startled out of her thoughts. "Did I interrupt something important?" Sparta asked with a small chuckle. "Dig in. It's on me."

"Thanks…" Michelle muttered, still lost in thought. _Ugh…I wanna ask him but I have a feeling he'll get mad…oh well…might as well eat._

She dug in, surprised that it was so good. She looked up to see Sparta on cloud nine, enjoying his noodles to the full extent. She dug in, savoring the seafood to the full extent. As they ate, both were oblivious to the movement of the other customers.

As they ate, two of the men that had been sitting there, quietly, drinking sake, had walked over. One slammed his fist on the table, snapping Michelle to attention. "Hey yoush animalch," he slurred. "Get your assches out of here." He hiccupped. "Or elsche."

Michelle was surprised at this, and looked at the owner and his grandson, both looking at them wordily. She turned and looked at Sparta and sweat dropped. He was still savoring his meal! He was blissfully unaware of the drunks. _He's a first class idiot._

"Ey you!" the other one snarled at Sparta. "Listeh to ush!" He reached out and smacked Sparta bowl away, sending it flying. It crashed into the wall, the contents splattering onto the wall. The bowl itself then shattered into pieces, porcelain flying around.

Sparta sat stock still for a few moments before he looked up at the man. "Yes? I'm listening to you now," he said through clenched teeth, his eyes betraying how angry he was.

"Get your assches out of her'" the first drunk said. "We don't like your kind here!"

Sparta stood up and looked back at the owner. "Hey gramps!" The man looked him in the eyes. "Call the cops and two ambos. Also, how much wood a wall cost?"

"A wall?" He looked at him, confused. "Maybe 1,000 lein?"

He shared a look with Michelle who just nodded. "Alright. Get on that phone call then. I got these two to take care of." The drunks stared down at him, confused, until they felt a hand on each collar. "Alley-oop!"

Lifting them both, he sent them crashing through a wall, into the street. "Aw…" he whined. "I couldn't send them flying. I'm really out of shape…stupid injuries," he grumbled.

At the same time the two drunks had stood up, fists in the air. Without saying much besides growling like animals, they rushed him, fists swinging. Two simple kicks to their balls rendered them useless, crying on the ground as they whimpered like animals.

Sparta, eyes still filled with fury continued to beat their crotches until both passed out, leaving them with damaged, if not destroyed balls. "Now bastards like them can't reproduce!" he said cheerfully to nobody in particular.

Turning around he walked in to see Michelle writing a check to the younger man while the older one called for the ambulances. The other customers had all fled, probably scared of Sparta.

"Sorry about that gramps!" he said, seeing him hang up. "I don't mean to ruin your business, but I hate people like that."

"We do too," he said, patting his grandson's shoulder. "But we didn't know they were like that until now. It might have been just the booze, but it's no excuse. I owe you a meal a well, don't I?"

"If you wouldn't mind," Sparta said with a chuckle. "I never did get to finish mine."

Michelle grabbed her bowl in the meantime. "Well, at least we get to enjoy good food out of it all."

Sparta smiled in agreement as he sat back down in the booth that now had a wall missing. "I have a feeling I'll have some questions to answer for the cops," he said with a soft chuckle.

After a sort interview with the cops and a meal finished, Michelle and Sparta said goodnight to the gramps and his grandson, turning to walk to the hotel. This time Michelle led so that they wouldn't get lost.

"That was an eventful afternoon wasn't it?" Sparta asked her, the broken moon rising over the horizon. "Are you gonna yell at me for wasting the money?"

"No, not really," she said with a shrug. "I mean it's from your bank account, so who cares?"

"Hey wait what?!" he stared at her in surprise. "How do you have my bank info?"

"Um…I do all of the finances for you and for the city." She shrugged. "Come with the job I guess? I know yours by heart due to the amount of money you've spent on the city personally."

"Ah well, yeah," He smiled softly and patted her head. "You're an important player in the grand scheme of things, ya know that?"

"I figured as much. You'd be screwed without me," she said, grinning up at him. "And I'm not a child."

"Sorry." Sparta withdrew his hand, the two of them walking on in silence until they reached the hotel. They went up the elevator, each heading to their separate rooms. "So…see ya tomorrow."

"See ya. Sleep well," Michelle said before closing her door.

Sparta did the same and flopped into bed, fully dressed. _Take me sleep for the love of everything holy before I think of her some more,_ he thought, sleep coming to him slowly but surely.

 **Who is it that keeps on popping up? What the hell happened at a stripper's place that is oh so terrible? I dunno. Well I do know, you don't though~! :3 I will tease this for a while before saying. Anyway, follow and fav for more, and review if you wanna. Ciao!**


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